NEW DELHI, Aug 31 - In a ruling which can have far- reaching consequences, the Supreme Court today set aside the controversial acquisition of 997.11 acres of land in Singur in 2006 by the then Left Front Government in West Bengal to set up Tata Motors� ambitious Nano car manufacturing plant.
The verdict, which came as a huge setback to the auto major, was delivered by a bench of Justices V Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra, which quashed the land acquisition process invoked by the erstwhile CPI(M)-led Government headed by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress Government, which first came to power in 2011 after spearheading an agitation of cultivators affected by the acquisition, got a shot in its arm as the apex court approved its political plank that the land should be returned to the cultivators.
The two judges, who were unanimous in quashing the acquisition process and for retainment of the compensation awarded to the land owners and the cultivators for being deprived of the use of their land for last 10 years, gave their own separate reasonings for arriving at their findings. They agreed that the land should be restored in 12 weeks to the owners and cultivators after completing the survey, identification and other formalities within 10 weeks.
The apex court said the State Government cannot claim back the amount of compensation given to the land losers as it had enjoyed the right over the acquired land for 10 years. � PTI
