Consider returning land, Tata told
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed Tata Motors to clarify its stand on its leasehold rights on the controversial Singur land. The top court suggested that as the company has moved out of West Bengal, the land should now be returned to farmers.
“The land was acquired for establishing a car manufacturing plant at Singur. Now the purpose is no more there as you have already moved out. Now you cannot say that you still have the interests in the land in question,” a bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and Dipak Misra said.
The automobile giant had been given 997 acres of land on lease in Singur in West Bengal in 2007 by the Left Front government for a factory to produce India’s cheapest car Nano. It pulled out of Singur a year later and moved its Nano project to Gujarat.
“You have already moved out... Why don’t you allow the state to return the land to farmers?” the court observed.
The court was hearing a special leave petition filed by the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government challenging the quashing of the Singur Land Acquisition Act 2011 by the Calcutta high court. The act allowed the government to reclaim 400 acres of land given to the Tata Motors and was a major poll promise made by Ms Banerjee wherein she had promised to return land to the unwilling farmers. The land was acquired from 13,000 owners, but 2,000 of them did not accept compensation for their 400 acres of land.
Backing the Mamata government over the matter, the Centre’s counsel indicated in court that the company could be compensated for the land with interest.
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