The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
SC stays HC order on taking back land given to Adani firm near Mundra
IN RELIEF for the Adani Group, the Supreme Court Wednesday stayed a Gujarat High Court order to resume the process of taking back nearly 108 hectares of grazing ( gauchar) land given to a group entity in 2005 near Mundra port in Kutch district.
A bench of justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan stayed the order while issuing notice on an appeal by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd ( APSEZ).
The state government had on July 5 informed the High Court that it will take back the land. The decision came 13 years after residents of Navinal village moved the High Court through a PIL against the decision to allot 231 acres of gauchar land to APSEZ.
As per residents, the village was left with just 45 acres of grazing land after allotting 231 acres of land to APSEZ. They contended that the move was illegal since they were already facing a shortage of grazing land, which they said was a community resource.
In 2014, the HC had disposed of the PIL after the state said the deputy collector had passed an order granting additional 387 hectares of government land for grazing. However, when it did not happen, a contempt petition was filed in the High Court.
In 2015, the state government filed a review petition before the HC contending that the available land for allocation to the panchayat is only 17 hectares. The state then proposed to allocate the remaining land nearly 7 km away, which the villagers opposed.
In April 2024, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi directed the Revenue Department to come up with a solution. The state government subsequently informed the court that it will take back the land.
The HC bench expressed satisfaction and said “we require the concerned authority/ officers to complete the process of resumption in accordance with law”.