Singur land: Tata Motors moves court

Tata Motors has approached the Calcutta high court against an RTI application seeking details of its agreement with the West Bengal government on the land allotment at Singur, from where the company has since moved out.

The company on Tuesday challenged before the court the RTI commissioner's competence to deal with the matter, with its counsel submitting before Justice Dipankar Dutta that the Right to Information Act was not applicable in case of an agreement involving industrial secrets.

Justice Dutta has scheduled the matter for hearing on Friday.

The company said in its petition that as the Nano project has been shifted to Gujarat from West Bengal, there was no logic in seeking to know a deal which has fallen through.

Justice Dutta had on September 26 set aside an earlier order of the information commissioner here on Tata Motors' plea that it had not been given a chance to be heard by the commissioner before ordering revelation of the agreement.

The court had then directed the commissioner to hear the matter afresh giving all parties fair chance to be heard.

However, after one hearing, Tata Motors moved the high court again with the fresh plea and Justice Dutta took it up on Tuesday.

The prestigious Nano car project was shifted to Gujarat following prolonged agitation by unwilling farmers demanding
return of land.