Blow to Mamata as HC nixes Singur Act

Kolkata, June 23: The Calcutta High Court on Friday held the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, “unconstitutional and void.”

The Act was the brainchild of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The Division Bench comprising Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Mrinal Kanti Chaudhury observed that the Act was unconstitutional and void since “sections of compensation in the Singur Act were in conflict with the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and the legislation had been enacted without obtaining assent of the President.”

The judgment is seen as a major blow to Banerjee. Earlier, a single bench of the Calcutta High Court, headed by I P Mukherjee, upheld the Act on September 28, 2011.

Tata Motors had subsequently moved the division bench challenging the verdict.

“The Single Bench had no jurisdiction to fill up loopholes left by the legislature,” Justices Ghosh and Chaudhury said.

The Bench observed that “though the single judge had awarded compensation on the basis of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, but the court had no power to insert, rewrite or reframe the Singur Act and the part dealing with compensation is not sustainable.”

The court, however, gave the state government two months time to appeal to the Supreme Court, but barred it from disbursing the reclaimed land in the interim period.

Trinamool Congress MP and government counsel Kalyan Bandopadhyay said: “The judges were also confused. So they had given a two month period for appeal which is rare. The state government would now definitely move the Supreme Court against the judgment.”

The Left Front government in West Bengal had leased out 997 acres to Tata Motors at Singur in Hooghly district for the Nano car factory.

While 645 acres were allotted to the company, the rest were given to the vendors.

Following mounting opposition by local farmers, led by the Trinamool Congress, Tata Motors shifted the factory to Sanand in Gujarat citing law and order issues, but kept possession of the land.

After coming to power, Banerjee scrapped the lease to Tata Motors, triggering a legal battle between the automobile giant and the government.