SC Wants Singur Land Returned to Farmers, Mamata Hails Verdict

Tata Motors had moved the Calcutta high court to challenge Mamata Bannerjee’s Singur Land and Rehabilitation Bill.

Inside the abandoned Singur Tata Nano factory. (Photo: The Quint) 

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, set aside the Calcutta High Court order upholding the land acquisition for Tata’s Nano plant at Singur in West Bengal.

Also Read: Defeated Development – The Abandoned Singur Tata Nano Factory

Land to be Returned in 12 Weeks

Finding fault with the land acquisition process, the bench of judges — Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice Arun Mishra — said that the acquired land should be returned to cultivators within 12 weeks from Wednesday.

The land acquisition collector has not properly conducted the inquiry into the complaints of cultivators with regard to acquisition of plots.

Supreme Court

Reacting to the verdict, a Tata Motors spokesperson said:

The case in which the judgment was delivered today, related to the acquisition of land by the State Government, before it was leased to Tata Motors. Our case relating to Singur Act of 2011, is yet to be heard by the Supreme Court. We will study today’s judgment in detail before commenting further on the same.

The CPI(M) government of Bengal had given Tata Motors Ltd around 1,000 acres of land in 2006, however, when the Trinamool Congress party provided strong resistance, the project was halted.

Entrance to one of the sheds of the Tata Nano factory at Singur. (Photo: The Quint)

Mamata Banerjee Hails Judgment

Calling the judgment a “landmark victory”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she is extremely satisfied with the decision.

I had dreamt of this SC verdict for so long, for the people of Singur. Now I can die in peace. I am remembering those people who made sacrifices fighting for this.

Banerjee further announced that a strategy meeting will be held on 1 September at 4 pm, and that the government will devise a way to return the land to farmers.

Tata Nano factory at Singur. (Photo: The Quint)

How it Happened

It was in May 2006 that the then CPM government announced that the Singur land would be allocated to Tata Motors for their ‘Rs 1 lakh Nano project’.

Several people angered by the land acquisition filed petitions in 2008. The acquisition was also challenged by the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights. It argued that the acquiring the land for public use and then giving it to Tata Motors for its Nano project was a breach of the land acquisition law.

After completion of the project, Ratan Tata on 28 September 2008 declared that the Nano Factory will be moved out of Singur, in Hooghly district, West Bengal.

The acquisition also led to a massive movement which propelled Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress into the limelight.

After coming to power in 2011, Mamata Bannerjee drafted the Singur Land and Rehabilitation Bill to return the land to the farmers.

Tata Motors then moved the Calcutta high court challenging the law to protect their leasehold.

Realising that the land continues to be a sensitive topic, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had raked up the issue during the campaigning of the 2016 Assembly elections.

She told people that her government will return the land to the “unwilling Singur farmers”.

Source: IANS, PTI and Firstpost