Ahmedabad

Gujarat High Court today ordered status quo on Special Investment Region (SIR) of Dholera owing to which no work can be started on the proposed SIR spread over 920 sq km, as one of the key business destinations under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC).

Hearing a petition of the residents of 22 villages whose land the government proposed to acquire for the SIR, the division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Jayant Patel and Justice V M Pancholi also issued notice to the state government asking it to explain why the Gujarat Special Investment Region Act 2009 should not be held unconstitutional.

The court also stayed the acquisition process till the disposal of the petition. The state government with a view to develop Dholera SIR, had recently decided to hand over 28,503 hectares of land to the special purpose vehicle (SPV) for developing a Smart City in the SIR. In their petition, residents of the 22 villages falling under SIR, have prayed to the High Court to declare the SIR Act of 2009 as unconstitutional on the ground that the power given to gram panchayats cannot be taken away by a government notification with regard to acquisition and use of land.
Advocate of the petitioners, K K Vakhariya also prayed to the High Court to quash the revenue department notifications with regard to acquisition of land for the proposed SIR.
Mr Vakhariya later told newsmen that with the status quo, no further activity with regard to infrastructure of SIR in the entire Dholera taluka can be carried out till the final disposal of the case.

The court has not fixed any particular date of hearing but it is likely to come up before the court in the next month.

– DeshGujarat