Supreme court has sought reply from Tata Motors, West Bengal government and others as to why ‘fertile multi-crop agricultural land’ was acquired for the company’s small car project at singur. This matter will come up for hearing in july.

Earlier this year Calcutta High Court ruled in favor of the West Bengal government and Tata Motors when a petition was filed which said government of west bengal forcibly took the land from farmers for industrial use, which isn’t allowed.

The Nano is slated to go on sale this November but this fresh spat could delay Tata’s plans because the next hearing on the land use petition will only come up in July. Some speculations even say that this delay in land acquisition might even jack up the price.

In case of delay, if Tata isn’t able to work out a production alternative, the company might not get the head start as it had hoped it would.

The petition filed by Kedar Nath Yadav, a practicing lawyer, while seeking immediate halt of the Nano car project had challenged the Calcutta High Court’s decision that upheld as legal the acquisition of land by the West Bengal government for the Nano project.

The acquisition of fertile multi-crop agricultural land by the government in various parts of the state for Tata Motors’ upcoming project, for Indonesia’s Salim Group in Haldia and the Reliance group, was violative of farmers’ rights guaranteed by the Constitution, Yadav’s petition filed through Sarla Chandra stated.

It also goes against the provisions of Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the petition said.

Tata Motors, which proposes to roll out the world’s cheapest car Nano from the Singur facility, submitted before the court that it had spent more than Rs 700 crore on the small-car project.

However, the manufacturer of the world’s cheapest car Nano had earlier requested the apex court not to pass any orders on the petition without hearing it.

Source: Times Of India