Calcutta HC concludes hearing on Tata Motors' plea; order on 26 September

23 September 2008

Mumbai: The Calcutta High Court today set 26 September as the date for passing a final order on Tata Motors' plea to restrain West Bengal government from disclosing contents of its agreement for setting up its small car plant.

Justice Dipankar Dutta, who concluded hearing in the case, also extended the interim gag order on the agreement till 30 September.    

Tata Motors had in its petition sought an injunction on the state principal information officer's directive to the state government to disclose the contents of the agreement.    

Appearing for Tata Motors, counsel S Pal submitted that parts of the document were official secrets and should not be made public.    

Kalyan Banerjee, who appeared for Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee, who had applied to the SPIO for contents of the deal, said the agreement could not be treated as a state secret as the land at Singur was acquired for public purpose.    

Justice Dutta had on 12 September passed a two weeks stay on operation of the 8 September order of the SPIO that asked West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation to make public the full text of the document.