New Delhi: In a major setback to the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the state government to stop redistribution of acquired land to the farmers until further orders.
A bench of the Supreme Court, while issuing its interim order, asked the Kolkata high court to give its ruling on the case within a month.
"The Supreme Court said it will not interfere in the special leave petition but till a further order from the High Court, no distribution of land will be done," said West Bengal government's lawyer Kalyan Bandopadhyay.
Returning 600 acres of land to the original owners was part of the promise Banerjee's Trinamool Congress party to the Singur farmers.
The land was acquired by the previous Left Front government and leased out to Tata Motors for its small car factory. Tatas, however, abandoned the factory site and moved production to Gujarat after violent protests erupted against land acquisition.
The West Bengal assembly passed the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act on June 14. It came into force on June 21, forcing the Tata Motors to move to the High Court the very next day which refused to give it any relief, prompting India's leading industrial House to knock on the doors of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court order came on the day the state government was in the process of handing back land to 12 farmers.
Tata Motors have challenged the Act saying the grounds for the cancellation of their lease are invalid. The company says that it did not abandon the project, but was forced to move out after it had invested billions of rupees after violent protests by farmers who were supported by Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.
"We have succeeded as complete protection has been given to Tata Motors. The control of land will be with the state government but it will not be given to anybody," said Tata Motors' lawyer Mukul Rohtagi.
