Calcutta High Court stays trial court order on E-W Metro land acquisition

KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Monday stayed an order by a trial court which had held that acquisition of land by the transport department of West Bengal government for the East West Metro project at Bowbazar for construction of Central Station stood lapsed because of procedural glitches.

Taking up an appeal by the state's Land and Land Revenue Department, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi passed an interim stay on the earlier order passed by a single bench and directed that the matter would be heard on April 2.

Justice Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya had in September last held in his order that the entire land acquisition proceedings concerning the properties stood lapsed.

The court observed that the consequences for non-publication of compensation award within the statutory period as provided in Section 11A of Land Acquisition Act, 1894, would follow in the case.

The court, in its order last week, had also directed that the premises, possession of which have already been taken by the transport department on January 24, to restore possession of petitioners within two weeks of communication of the order.

The Central Calcutta Citizens Welfare Association had filed the writ petition in 2010, challenging the proceeding for acquisition of a number of premises on B B Ganguly Street and Mohim Chandra Das Sarani for the purpose of running Metro Railway from Salt Lake Sector-V to Howrah Station under East West Metro Corridor Project by the Transport Department.

The Central station, where the East West Metro was to cross the existing Dumdum-Kabi Subhash Metro service, was scheduled to come up there.