Kolkata:
Tata Motors Limited approached the Supreme Court today challenging the Calcutta High Court order refusing its plea to restrain the West Bengal government from returning land to farmers in Singur.
The petition was mentioned before a vacation bench comprising justices P Sathasivam and AK Patnaik. The matter has been posted for hearing tomorrow. The bench accepted the plea of Tatas' counsel to file the petition later in the day. The counsel submitted that the company is seeking a direction for the state government not to create third party interest in the land.
On Monday, the Calcutta High Court had refused to pass an interim stay order observing that the Tata Motors Limited's petition had no specific statement as to when the process of land distribution would start.
The High Court had noted the petitioner had submitted that if the prayer was not allowed and land distributed, the original petition challenging the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011 would become infructuous.
Tata Motors had moved an ex-parte petition seeking stay on distribution of land expressing apprehension that it would be given back to "unwilling" farmers within a day or two.
Tata Motors want the Supreme Court to stay the Singur Act and stay the distribution of land to the farmers. It has accused the Mamata Banerjee government of violating the constitution and encroaching judicial power by bringing a law for distributing the Singur land acquired by Tatas.
Their petition says, "The law that enables the West Bengal government to return the land to farmers is illegal because as per settled law, acquired land can't go back to the original owner."
"West Bengal government forcibly evicted Tata Motors from Singur and the company had invested 1800 crore rupees and it is a blatant violation of natural justice," it adds.
The petition also says that "no compensation has been paid by the state government" and that Mamata government can't ignore the commitment made to Tata Motors by the Left government.
In the Singur Bill that was passed, Ms Banerjee had accused the Tatas of "non-commissioning and abandoning" their project. But the company disagrees strongly with this. In a statement earlier this month, Tata Motors said, "The operations of setting up and commissioning of the plant was conducted under very difficult conditions, amidst violence... there being no guarantee of a safe and peaceful environment, Tata had to reluctantly close operations on October 3, 2008."
(With PTI inputs)