By way of background, the West Bengal government, then led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had earlier acquired land in Singur and handed it over to Tata for the production of Nano cars.
However, Tata had to abandon the construction of its car factory in 2008 and shift to Gujarat following anti-land acquisition protests spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee, who eventually stormed to power and became the West Bengal Chief Minister in 2011.
In 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that the land acquisition was “grossly perverse and illegal” in view of non-compliance with provisions of the Land Acquisition Act.
This was after the West Bengal government (now formed by the Trinamool Congress Party) changed its stance and argued before the Supreme Court that the State’s land acquisition (under the previous regime) was illegal.
Subsequently, Tata pursued arbitration proceedings in the matter, on the basis of its lease agreement with the (earlier) State government.
The Arbitral Tribunal has now ruled in favour of Tata Motors in the matter.
Source: Barandbench
