PANAJI: The high court of Bombay at Goa on Monday directed all advocates appearing in petitions relating to special economic zones (SEZs) in the state to finish filing and finalise exchanging their pleadings by May 7, 2009.
A division bench of Justice B P Dharmadhikari and Justice U D Salvi made it clear that "no further adjournments would be granted". They further suggested that the petitions could be taken up for final disposal in June this year.
The court was hearing petitions filed by six SEZ promoters who have challenged the show cause notices issued by the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC).
The notices direct the promoters to stop work and revert the land allotted to them by the state government, in view of a change in the state's SEZ policy.
The promoters Meditab Specialities Pvt Ltd., Peninsular Pharma Research Centre Pvt Ltd, Paradigm Logistic & Distribution Private Ltd, Planetview Mercantile Company Pvt Ltd, Inox Mercentile Company Pvt Ltd and Maxgrow Finlease Pvt Ltdhave pleaded in their petitions that as they have invested heavily in the SEZ projects, they suffered huge losses due to the stop work orders issued by the state government. They prayed that the notices be quashed.
Goa Industrial Development Corporation had acquired about 3.8 million sq m of land across the state to set up SEZs. Following large scale opposition from locals to the special economic zones in 2007-08, the state was forced to rethink its policy and subsequently issued show cause notices through the GIDC.
Meanwhile, the court will, on May 7, also hear various public interest litigations filed by the villagers of Keri, Sancoale and Verna challenging the GIDC's decision to allot land in their respective villages on lease agreements for SEZs.
The villagers have complained that the land was allotted fraudulently and without public involvement in the land allotment process.
Complete pleadings by May 7, SEZ firms told
HERALD REPORTER PANJIM, APRIL 27
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Monday directed that filing and exchanging of pleadings pertaining to petitions on Special Economic Zone (SEZ) be completed by May 7, 2009.Declining to adjourn the hearing after vacations, the High Court asked counsels appearing for SEZ companies to complete the pleadings by May 7.
The Division Bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and U D Salvi made it clear that no further adjournments would be granted. The petitions are likely to be taken up for final disposal after vacations.
The SEZ promoters - Meditab Specialities Pvt Ltd, Peninsular Pharma Research Centre Pvt Ltd, Paradigm Logistic & Distribution Private Ltd, Planetview Mercantile Company Pvt Ltd, Inox Mercentile Company Pvt Ltd and Maxgrow Finlease Pvt Ltd, are before the High Court. They have challenged the show cause notices issued to them by Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) for withdrawing the land allotted in industrial estates.
The GIDC decided to take back the land allotted after the State Government reversed its decision of allowing SEZs in Goa when it realized that people will oppose SEZs tooth and nail. It was the first major decision of chief minister Digambar Kamat despite having pro-SEZ ministers in the cabinet.
The GIDC has come under cloud over allotment of to SEZ developers . – it has been directly indicted in Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report. The CAG has revealed poor financial management and irregularities conducted by GIDC in allotment of land. Deficiencies and irregularities resulted a loss of Rs 127.25 crore to the Corporation, says the report Allotment of land to SEZ projects was blatantly irregular. The Corporation allotted 38.41 lakh sq meter land for setting up seven SEZs at three of its industrial estates at Verna, Sancoale and Keri.Contention of the petitioners is that as they have invested heavily in SEZ projects and suffered huge losses due to the stop work orders of the government.
On the other hand a couple of Public Interest litigations (PILs) filed by villagers of Keri, Sancoale and Verna, challenging GIDC’s decision to allot land in their respective villages on lease agreements to SEZs stakeholders, are also pending before the High Court. Their charge is GIDC fraudulently allotted land to SEZ developers.
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