HC adjourns SEZ plea to Aug 31

HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JULY 27
The Division Bench of Bombay High Court on Monday adjourned the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) petitions for final hearing till August 31 thus asking the petitioners to amend the petitions in view of withdrawal of SEZ policy by the State Government within four weeks.
The Bench comprising of Justice S B Deshmukh and Justice U D Salvi ordered the State Advocate General Subodh Kantak to amend the petition and file it before the Bench in next four weeks and thereafter two weeks for reply.
In last order on June 16, the petitioners were asked to amend the petition within two weeks.The amendment is warranted after Chief Minister Digambar Kamat-led government on June 15, 2009 withdrew the SEZ policy. The State government had scrapped 12 SEZs while three are awaiting de-notification with Central Commerce Ministry.
The six 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 High Court. They moved High Court after Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) issued them show cause notice asking them to withdraw the land allotted to them as State government has taken a decision not to have SEZs in Goa.
The promoters’ contention is that they have invested heavily in the SEZ projects and suffered huge losses due to the stop work orders issued by the government.
The GIDC had acquired about 3.8 million square meters of land for setting up the SEZs.
CM Digambar Kamat during the ongoing Assembly session has submitted on the floor that decision to withdraw the SEZ policy is absolutely right, stating that such enclaves would have ‘put strain on State’s resources’.