In a major relief to the Ahmedabad-based Adani Group, the Gujarat High Court has disposed of a bunch of Public Interest Litigation petitions challenging the State government's allotment of about 1,000 acres of land to the Adanis for setting up the Mundra Special Economic Zone in Kutch district.
‘No merit'
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyaya and Justice Akil Kureshi, did not find any merit in the PILs which claimed that the land allocated for the SEZ had disturbed the State government prescribed ratio of cattle to available grazing land.
The PILs had also called the allotment “illegal and arbitrary.”
Government claim
Opposing the contentions, the government claimed that the land was allocated after following due procedure and had the consent of the village panchayats concerned.
It also disagreed that the allocation had disturbed the cattle-land ratio.
However, the Bench suggested that the government look at the possibility of allocating about 1,000 acres of government waste land to the village panchayats concerned for use as grazing land.
In case such land was not available, it suggested, the panchayat may be enabled to purchase land by being given a part of the premium collected from the Adanis.
“No direction”
The Bench, however, sought to make it clear that this was only a suggestion, and not a ‘direction' to the government.
