Tata Motors moves Supreme Court on Singur land issue

Tata Motors today approached the Supreme Court challenging the Calcutta high court order refusing its plea to restrain West Bengal government from distributing land to farmers in Singur.

The petition was mentioned before a vacation bench comprising Justice P Sathasivam and Justice AK Patnaik which posted the matter for hearing tomorrow. The bench accepted the plea of Tatas's counsel to file the petition later in the day.

The counsel submitted that the company is seeking a direction for the state government not to create third party interest in the land.

The Calcutta high court had yesterday refused to pass an interim stay order observing that the Tata Motors Limited petition had no specific statement as to when the process of land distribution would start.

The high court had noted the petitioner had submitted that if the prayer was not allowed and land distributed, the original petition challenging the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011 would become infructuous.

Tata Motors had moved an ex-parte petition seeking stay on distribution of land expressing apprehension that it would be given back to "unwilling" farmers within a day or two.