Tata Motors on Tuesday made a special mention of its petition before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the law passed by the Mamata Banerjee government taking back the land in Singur allotted to it by West Bengal’s former Left Front government for the Nano car project after acquiring it from local farmers.
Accusing the Trinamul Congress, now in power in the state, of “playing politics” on the entire issue from the very beginning, Tata Motors raised a constitutional question in its petition: whether the passage of the Singur Rehabilitation and Development Act on June 14 in a hurried manner would not amount to the West Bengal legislature “exercising” judicial powers to decide an issue which is still pending before the Supreme Court.
After the Tatas’ counsel Gopal Jain made a mention of the special leave petition for an urgent hearing before a vacation bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and A.K. Patnaik, the court agreed to take it up on Wednesday.
“The SLP raises a question of substantial public importance, namely whether the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 is tantamount to the legislature exercising judicial authority, which is against the basic feature of the Constitution, and is, therefore, unconstitutional,” the Tatas’ petition maintained.
The SLP said a corporation set up by the Tata group for executing the small car project had spent `1,800 crores on it, but it was forced to shift out of the state due to “political” reasons.
“The petitioner was prevented from setting up and making fully operational the plant at Singur due to a political agitation launched by political parties, including Trinamul Congress, which is in power (now), and was instrumental in passing the impugned legislation,” the SLP said.