Supreme Court stays Gujarat government move to retrieve 108 hectares of land allotted to Adani Ports

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Gujarat government's decision to retrieve 108 hectares of land in the Kachchh region that had been allotted to Adani Ports in 2005. (Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd v. State of Gujarat and ors).The State had intended to give the land back to villagers for the purpose of cattle grazing. A Bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan today asked parties to maintain status quo until the next date of hearing, and sought the response of the State government in the matter."Issue notice, returnable within four weeks Dasti, in addition, is permitted. In the meantime, the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court shall remain stayed".This was after counsel for Adani Ports pointed out that it was not heard by the Gujarat High Court..The Gujarat government had informed the Gujarat High Court earlier this month that it would retrieve the land and give it back to villagers for the purpose of cattle grazing.The State was prompted to act after the High Court passed an order on April 19 this year calling for necessary steps to resolve the lack of gauchar (cattle grazing) land for residents of Navinal village."The replenishment of the gauchar land in Village Navinal is the duty of the State," the Court had said in its April 19 order.On June 21, a Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi had issued a last opportunity to the State Revenue Department and the Collector of Kachchh, to file an affidavit in compliance with the April 19 order..After hearing the matter on July 5, the High Court had noted in its order,"Simultaneously, to make good the deficit of Gaucher land of Village Navinal, it is resolved to resume an area of 108-22-35 hectares from respondent No.7 (Adani Ports) and the proposal in this regard had been moved before the State Government on 01.07.2024.".The State government had allocated certain portions of land to Adani Group in 2005 for its Mundra Port Special Economic Zone project. The residents of nearby Navinal came to know about the allocation in 2010 when they saw fencing around the land which they had been using for grazing cattle.In 2011, they filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the allocation, contending that such allocation has shrunk the land which was used by them for gauchar.The High Court found that there were around 732 animals present, for which an area of 320 acres (around 130 hectares) would be required for their grazing. However, after allocation to the Adani Group, the remaining land available to the villagers was only about 17 hectares. The State initially proposed to grant around 387 hectares of government land and around 85 hectares of land belonging to the village panchayat for the purpose of gauchar.Thus, the High Court had initially disposed of the matter in 2014.However, the State filed a recall application showing discrepancy in its initial offer, which led to restoration of proceedings in the matter..Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi with Advocates Mahesh Agarwal, Ranjeeta Rohatgi, MS Ananth, Arshit Anand, S Lakshmi Iyer, Shashwat Singh, and EC Agrawala appeared for Adani Ports..[Read order]