Singur Act held unconstitutional by Calcutta High Court
A setback to West Bengal government led by Mamata Banerjee, Calcutta
High Court on Friday held as unconstitutional and void Singur Land
Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, under which the state had
vested land leased to Tata Motors. Giving its verdict on an appeal by
Tata Motors Ltd, a division bench comprising Justices Pinaki Chandra
Ghosh and Mrinal Kanti Chaudhury observed that the President's assent
had not been taken for the Act and as such it was void and
unconstitutional. The implementation of the order was, however, stayed
for two months by the division bench to allow the aggrieved party to
appeal before a higher court. The division bench set aside the order of
Justice I P Mukerji who had held the Act to be constitutional. It
observed that the single bench had no jurisdiction to fill up loopholes
left by the legislature. The court also observed that what was done in
Singur was acquisition of land by the said Act and as such it was void.
Tata Motors had challenged the order of the single bench of the
Calcutta High Court, which had upheld the Singur Land Rehabilitation and
Development Act, 2011, by which the West Bengal government vested the
land leased to the company at Singur, before the division bench of the
court. Tata Motors had appealed against the order of Justice Mukerji,
which was passed on 28th September, last year. Justice Mukerji had held
the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 to be
constitutional. The court had, however, ordered on 28th September an
unconditional stay of the judgement till November two to allow any
aggrieved party to file an appeal, if it so desired. Tata Motors had
been leased 997 acres at Singur in Hooghly district, about 40 km from
Kolkata, by the previous Left Front government for its Nano car project,
billed as the cheapest car. Trinamool Congress, which was then the
main opposition in West Bengal, had demanded return of 400 acres to
farmers unwilling to give land for the project. Tata Motors had moved
its Nano small car factory to Sanand in Gujarat in 2008 citing law and
order problems, but had kept possession of the leased land at Singur.
After coming to power in May 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had
the Singur Act passed in the Assembly as one of her government's first
major legislations. Counsel for the state government Kalyan
Bandyopadhyay, who is also a Trinamool Congress MP, said that the state
would appeal against the order in the Supreme Court. Bengal to decide
action after getting copy of H C verdict The West Bengal government,
which received a setback with Calcutta High Court holding Singur Land
Rehabilitation and Development Act as unconstitutional, on Friday said
it would decide its next course of action only after getting a copy of
the verdict. "We have not received the copy of the court verdict. The
state government will take action only after getting it," Commerce and
Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee told reporters in Kolkata. The High
Court has held as unconstitutional and void the Singur Land
Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, under which the state had
vested land leased to Tata Motors. Chatterjee also assured the people,
farmers and land labourers in Singur that they were with them and would
continue to stand beside them. "We were with them, we are with them and
we will be with them. We are committed to protect their interest," he
said, recalling that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had
observed a 26-day fast in Singur to protect the interests of farmers.
He said the state government was committed to return the land of
unwilling farmers and protect interests of land labourers.
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