Tatas win Singur land case, huge setback for Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: In a major victory for the Tatas, the Calcutta High Court on Friday said the Singur Land Rehabilitation & Development Act, 2011, is unconstitutional and invalid.

The verdict is a huge blow for the Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who had used Singur as her poll plank to oust the communists from the state.

A jubilant Tata counsel Samaraditya Pal said that justice has been done. "My client must be happy," he said.

The state government's counsel Kalyan Banerjee said the West Bengal government would challenge the Calcutta High Court judgement in Supreme Court.

State industry minister Partha Chatterjee, however, said the West Bengal government will announce its next course of action only after seeing the certified copy of the judgement. The Mamata Banerjee government has always stood by the farmers of Singur. It will continue to stand by them and leave no stone unturned to safeguard the interest of Singur farmers".

Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Mrinal Kanti Chowdhury set aside an earlier single bench order that had upheld the Act. The implementation of the order will be stayed for two months by the court to allow the aggrieved party to appeal before a higher court.

Tata Motors had challenged the order of the single bench of the Calcutta High Court which had upheld the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, by which the West Bengal government vested the land leased to the company at Singur, before the division bench of the Court.

Tata Motors had appealed against the order of Justice I P Mukerji, which was passed on September 28 last year.

Justice Mukerji had held the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 to be constitutional.

The court had, however, ordered on September 28 an unconditional stay of the judgement till November two to allow any aggrieved party to file an appeal, if it so desired.

Tata Motors had been leased 997 acre at Singur in Hooghly district, about 40 km from here, by the previous Left Front government for its Nano car project, billed as the cheapest car.

The Trinamool Congress, which was then the main opposition in West Bengal, had demanded return of 400 acre to farmers unwilling to give land for the project.

Tata Motors had moved to Sanand in Gujarat in 2008 citing law and order problems, but had kept possession of the leased land at Singur.

After coming to power in May 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had the Singur Act passed in the Assembly as one of her government's first major legislations.