Directs govt to return land to farmers
AMN /
The Supreme Court today asked the West Bengal government return 400 acres of land, acquired in Singur for Tata Motors to set up its Nano plant, to farmers.
The apex Court set aside the controversial land acquisition by the then Left Front government in 2006 in Singur, West Bengal. About 997 acres of land were acquired to set up Tata Motors’ ambitious Nano car manufacturing plant. The verdict came as a huge setback to the auto major.
It was delivered by a bench of Justices V Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra. The bench quashed the land acquisition process invoked by the erstwhile CPI(M)-led government headed by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
The two judges were unanimous in quashing the acquisition process and for retainment of the compensation awarded to the land owners and the cultivators for being deprived of the use of their land for last 10 years.
However, they gave their own separate reasonings for arriving at their findings. They agreed that the land should be restored in 12 weeks to the owners and cultivators after completing the survey, identification and other formalities within 10 weeks.
The apex court said the state government cannot claim back the amount of compensation given to the land-losers as it had enjoyed the right over the acquired land for ten years.
Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government, which first came to power in 2011 after spearheading agitation of cultivators affected by the acquisition, got a shot in its arm as the apex court approved its political plank that the land should be returned to the cultivators.