Contempt petition moved in HC against govt officials on land transfer

A contempt petition was today moved before the Calcutta High Court against three senior West Bengal government officials in connection with an alleged transfer of land in the state's IT hub to a third party "in violation" of the court's earlier order.

Justice Rajasekhar Mantha directed the three officers to file their reply within six weeks stating their positions with regard to the allegation.

The contempt petition was moved against Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NITA) chairman Debasish Sen, principal secretary of Urban Development department Subrata Gupta and former principal secretary of the department O S Meena.

The complainant company claimed that a plot of land was allotted to it in 2011 in Salt Lake Sector V, an information technology hub, on lease.

It was stated that the lease was cancelled by the authorities in 2016 on the grounds that the company had not started construction work by then.

The petitioner had moved the high court challenging the cancellation and claimed that it could not start construction since possession of land had not been handed over to it.

The company's lawyer claimed that in November 2016, a different bench of the court passed an order restraining the authorities from transferring the land to any third party.

The contempt petition was filed before the high court claiming that NITA had violated the court's earlier order with regard to transfer of land to any third party.

Lawyer for the company Srijib Bhattacharya told Justice Mantha that in February 2018 it was found that a park was being constructed on the plot of land.

Bhattacharya also claimed that through an RTI application, it was learnt that the land had been transferred to West Bengal Higher Education department's Science, Technology and Biotechnology wing.