Calcutta HC judge recuses from Tata Singur case

Kolkata, Feb 20 (IANS) Justice Mousumi Bhattacharya of the Calcutta High Court has recused from hearing the case on West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) challenging the arbitration award to Tata Motors Limited (TML) on account of loss of capital in the investment on the abandoned land at Singur in Hooghly district.

Singur was the erstwhile site for Tata Motors small car Nano project.

Now it is to be seen which new bench will be allotted the case by the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court.

In October last year a three-member Arbitral Tribunal directed the West Bengal government to pay a compensation of Rest 765.78 crore in addition to an interest at the rate of 11 per cent accrued on it since September 2016 as compensation to the company.

WBIDC moved the Calcutta High Court challenging the decision. However, before the hearing in the matter could begin Justice Bhattacharya, whose bench was allotted the case, recused from hearing.

To recall, after coming to power with a thumping majority in 2006, then Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-led seventh Left Front government had announced the Nano project in Singur by TML. Accordingly, the work for setting up of the factory started there after the state government finished the process of land acquisition for the project.

However, the problem started after a small section of the land-owners refused to accept the compensation cheques and started agitation against the land acquisition. Trinamool Congress and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as the-then principal opposition leader in the state, started a massive agitation in Singur against the land acquisition.

In face of massive agitation finally the Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata withdrew from the Singur, and went to Sanand in Gujarat which became the new site for the Nano project. After coming to power in 2011 ending the 34-year Left Front rule, the first decision of the Mamata Banerjee- led state cabinet was to promulgate a new law for the return of the land at Singur to all the land-owners.