Court dismisses petition against Reliance SEZ

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court has dismissed a petition filed by farmers, challenging land acquisition by Reliance Infrastructure and the state government for a special economic zone refinery project in Jamnagar district.

Reliance Petroleum, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is setting up a 27-m tonne refinery adjacent to RIL’s existing 32-m tonne refinery in Jamnagar and needed to acquire 10,000 acres of land for the SEZ project in Kanalus, Padana and
Navagam villages in Lalpur taluka of the district.

The petitioners Kanti Depar and 50 others contended that the process of land acquisition entrusted with the
district collector was vitiated because the collector delegated his functions to the deputy collector for conducting inquiry into the land to be acquired.

The petitioners had also challenged the land acquisition on the ground that the exercise initiated by the
government was not for public purpose. The HC rejected their plea, while holding that the company had not erred in the Land Acquisition Act and that it was done as per the SEZ Act ’05 and various decisions of the Supreme court, the advocate for RIL said.

The HC held that when the deputy collector had come to the villages to conduct inquiry about the status of the land, the petitioners had willingly participated and had not raised any objection.