New Delhi : The Supreme Court today quashed acquisition of 1,000 acres of land in Singur effected by the then Leftist government in West Bengal in 2006 for the setting up of the Nano car unit by the Tata Group.
A division bench of Justices V Gopala Gowda and Arun Kumar Mishra made strong observations against the then Buddhadeb Bhattacharya-led government and held that the acquisition process adopted by it was illegal and irregular on many counts. Terming the then government's acquisition a betrayal of landholder farmers, the Court held that decision to acquire the land for a private company could not be viewed as a move taken in larger public interest.
The Apex Court had directed the state government to take the land in its possession and then transfer it back to farmers who had owned it prior to the 2006 acquisition. It gave a deadline of 12 weeks to the government to take the possession of the land and hand it over to its original owners. (UNI)