HC SETBACK FOR SEZs

HC SETBACK FOR SEZs
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, NOV 26
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Friday quashed and set aside the land allotments to the seven Special Economic Zone (SEZ) developers in the State.
Justice F M Reis, who passed the judgement as the other Justice A S Oka is not sitting at Panjim, also asked the developers to apply afresh for the land.
The court observed that the allotment of lands to the companies has been made in undue haste without proper scrutiny of their applications, the allotment of lands has been made arbitrarily, the procedure adopted in the allotment was not fair and transparent and the allotments made by the GIDC do not stand the test of reasonableness.
The order said that the petitioners as well as the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) shall maintain status quo as of today for a period of four months.
The order means that the petitioners shall not carry on any further construction on the said lands and shall not create any third party rights.
On the other hand, the GIDC has also been directed not to dispossess the petitioners and not to allot the said lands to third parties.
“If within a period of four months from today, fresh allotment is not made by the GIDC, on expiry of said four months, it will be open for the GIDC to take steps in accordance with law for taking possession of the land,” the order states.
The Government of India had approved in principle 7 SEZs for the State of Goa, out of which three, namely, Meditab Specialities Pvt Ltd, Peninsula Pharma Research Pvt Ltd and K Raheja Corportion Pvt Ltd, were notified.
The others were Maxgrow Filease Pvt Ltd, Planetview Mercantile Co Ltd, Inox Mercantile Co Ltd and Paradigm Logistics and Distributions Pvt Ltd.
However, bowing to public pressure the State decided to scrap the SEZs in Goa. The seven promoters who were allotted land by the GIDC have demanded damages of over Rs 1500 cr from the Goa government.