It''s ta-ta Singur land deal as SC quashes acquisition

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, August 31

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the West Bengal government to return to the owners all 997 acres (4 square kilometres) of land acquired in Singur village in Hooghly district in 2006 for Tata Motors’ Nano car project in 12 weeks without recovering the compensation amount.

A Bench comprising Justices Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra quashed the land acquisition order, but the two judges gave different reasons for their order. The court said the landowners need not return the compensation received by them as they were deprived of using their land for 10 years. The judges clarified that the landowners who had not received the compensation were entitled to take it now along with re-possession of their land.

Justice Gowda ruled that the acquisition was “bad and illegal” as the intention was to favour a private company, not to serve any public purpose as mandated under the Land Acquisition Act. He also found fault with the acquisition proceedings almost at all stages.

Justice Mishra, however, held that the acquisition was for a public purpose as it was intended to ensure industrialisation of West Bengal and provide employment to thousands of jobless youth. He, however, agreed with Justice Gowda that the acquisition proceedings stood vitiated due to lapses on the part of the collector and other state authorities involved in the process of considering the objections by the affected farmers and other owners and in deciding the compensation amount.

The apex court also set aside the Calcutta High Court judgment upholding the land acquisition done in 2006 by the then CPM-led Left Front government headed by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, who was in the Opposition then, had spearheaded an agitation against the land acquisition.

After winning the 2011 assembly elections and becoming the Chief Minister, Banerjee got a law passed in the legislature for taking back 400 acres of the 997 acres given to Tata Motors. The Calcutta High Court, however, struck down the law titled the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, holding it as unconstitutional, on a plea by Tata Motors. The state government has come in appeal against the HC ruling, but this has been rendered irrelevant in view of Wednesday’s judgment.

Tata Motors did not want to return the land despite moving its small car project to Gujarat due to the agitation by the affected landowners. The company had said it would use the land for setting up ancillary and other units.

The SC ruling has come on a batch of petitions by the affected landowners and social activists.