SC stays Guj HC order to take back 108 ha of land given to Adani Group

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a Gujarat High Court order asking the state government to resume the process of taking back nearly 108 hectares of grazing land given to the Adani Group in 2005 near the Mundra port.

The Gujarat government had on Friday told the High Court that it would retrieve the 108 hectares of land in the Kachchh region from Adani Ports and give it "back to villagers for the purpose of cattle grazing."

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan on Wednesday, however, listening to the appeal of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) Ltd said that the High Court order needs to be stayed in the interest of justice.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Adani, said they were not heard by the High Court.

“He (Mukul Rohatgi) states that though the counsel for the petitioner was present before the High Court and attempted to make submissions, he was not heard by the High Court. Issue notice. Stay on the impugned order (HC order)," said Justice Gavai.

APSEZ had challenged the Gujarat High Court’s Friday order to return 108 hectares of 'gauchar' (grazing) land to farmers.

It all started when the residents of Navinal village of Kutch district filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the High Court against the decision to allot 231 acres of 'gauchar' land to the Adani firm.

They said the village was left with just 45 acres of grazing land following the allotment of 231 out of 276 acres of such land to APSEZ. They argued that the allotment was illegal since the village was already facing a shortage of grazing land and said that the 'land' was a community resource.

A division bench of the High Court in April this year had directed the additional chief secretary of the Revenue Department to come up with a solution.

The additional chief secretary had on Friday told the High Court that the state government had decided to take back the 'gauchar' land allotted to APSEZ.