The Calcutta High Court set aside prohibitory orders issued by the Hooghly district administration at Singur, where the Tata Motors' small car plant is being built.
KOLKATA: In a jolt for the West Bengal government, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday quashed prohibitory orders imposed at Singur, which witnessed protests over the acquistion of land for a Tata Motors' car plant, and observed that they amounted to an abuse of power.
Acting on a writ challenging them, Justice Dipankar Datta quashed the orders under Section 144 of CrPC that were imposed at Singur on February 4 and set to expire on February 14.
The court said the orders were predetermined and passed by abusing power. There was no ingredient for invoking Section 144 of CrPc and the rights of the petitioners had been infringed on under Article 19 of the Constitution.
The petition was filed by Ganesh Chakraborty and others of the Singur unit of the Trinamool Congress-led Save Farmland Committee.
The prohibitory orders banned the holding of rallies and meetings in Singur, which has witnessed violent protests in recent weeks against the acquisition of land for the Tata Motors' project.
An unfazed state government said it would seek legal opinion about the necessity of reimposing prohibitoryy orders in Singur in light of the court's order.
Home Secretary PR Roy justified the orders and said there had been no abuse of power.
Pointing out that the government was yet to receive a copy of the court's order, Roy said the court struck down the prohibitory orders because of a 'technical fault'.
"We are verifying the fault," he said. Prohibitory orders were first clamped at Singur on November 30, the day when Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was not allowed to go to there to protest the acquisition of land.
This subsequently led to the ransacking of the West Bengal assembly. The administration, fearing trouble in Singur, imposed the prohibitory orders.
The orders were withdrawn on January 28 and later reimposed on February 4
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