The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to put any roadblock before the world’s cheapest car Nano’s planned rollout by the year-end though it issued notices to its producer Tata Motors and the West Bengal government following a petition challenging land acquisition.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice M.K. Sharma said it will not order any status quo on the issue of land acquisition for the car’s plant in Singur in West Bengal.
The lawsuit filed by affected farmers has challenged the January 2008 order of the Calcutta High Court upholding the legality of the government’s decision to acquire 997.11 acres of land at Singur for the project.
The bench issued the notice despite protests by the West Bengal counsel, Mr K.K. Venugopal, who said: “The land has already been acquired, the possession handed over and the compensation paid.” The project has “reached financial closure”, said Mr Venugopal, pleading to the court not to issue notice on the petition by five Singur farmers, including Mr Kedar Nath Yadav, challenging the High Court’s ruling.
The bench issued notices after counsel for Mr Yadav, Mr K. Bandopadhyay, pointed out to the court that part of the Singur farmers’ land acquired by the state was still with West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. Mr Bandopadhyay also contended that the Land Acquisition Act empowered the government only to acquire land in public interest and not for business houses.
The petition said, “The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has made a drastic decision to acquire thousands of acres of agricultural lands in various parts of the states for various industrial projects, including those for Tata Motors’ small car project in Singur and for the Salem group’s project in Haldia.”