Scrapping of Tata Nano project in Singur: Arbitral Tribunal awards ₹766 crore compensation to Tata Motors

An Arbitral Tribunal recently awarded Tata Motors ₹766 crores as compensation to be paid by the West Bengal government to cover capital losses incurred by Tata after plans to manufacture Nano cars in Singhur district were eventually scrapped..An Arbitral Tribunal comprising of former Supreme Court judge, Justice VS Sirpurkar and former Calcutta High Court judges, Justices Aloke Chakrabarti and Jayanta Kumar Biswas passed the ruling. .The Arbitral Tribunal held that:- Tata Motors was entitled to recover a sum of ₹765. 78 crores from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) with interest at the rate of 11 percent per annum from September 1, 2016, till actual recovery.- Tata Motors was entitled to ₹1 crore to be recovered from the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation towards costs for pursuing the arbitration proceedings..By way of background, the West Bengal government, then led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had earlier acquired land in Singur and handed it over to Tata for the production of Nano cars.However, Tata had to abandon the construction of its car factory in 2008 and shift to Gujarat following anti-land acquisition protests spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee, who eventually stormed to power and became the West Bengal Chief Minister in 2011.In 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that the land acquisition was "grossly perverse and illegal" in view of non-compliance with provisions of the Land Acquisition Act.This was after the West Bengal government (now formed by the Trinamool Congress Party) changed its stance and argued before the Supreme Court that the State's land acquisition (under the previous regime) was illegal.Subsequently, Tata pursued arbitration proceedings in the matter, on the basis of its lease agreement with the (earlier) State government.The Arbitral Tribunal has now ruled in favour of Tata Motors in the matter. .Tata Motors Limited was represented by a team from Avijit Deb Partners, a Kolkata-based law firm, led by Senior Partner Advocate Avijit Deb, with the matter being argued by Senior Advocates Sudipto Sarkar and Siddharth Mitra. The rest of the team included Advocates Soumitra Datta, Deepan Kumar Sarkar, and Ananya Sinha.The WBIDC was represented by a team from JSA Advocates & Solicitors led by their Partner, Advocate Sidharth Sethi.