The government had proposed tranches of gauchar land in different villages, which the HC had shot down, insisting that the government must allot grazing land in the same village.
The state informed the Gujarat High Court on Friday that it has passed a government resolution (GR) allotting 129 hectare of grazing (gauchar) land to Navinal village in Kutch district. The GR, passed on July 4, also mentioned taking back 108 hectare at Navinal that was allotted to Mundra Port and SEZ (now known as Adani Ports and SEZ Limited, APSEZL) in 2005 to develop a special economic zone (SEZ).
This comes after last month, the HC had shot down a proposal of the state government to compensate Navinal by allotting it gauchar land for its cattle at a nearby village after Navinal’s grazing land was handed over to Mundra Port and SEZ.
While the APSEZL opposed the GR over taking back 108 hectare, the HC suggested that it can challenge the same before an appropriate court. Notably, APSEZL had assured that it would return 38 hectare to Navinal village, but it is still pending.
In 2005, gauchar land of three panchayats was divested by the collector of Kutch district to be allocated to Mundra Port and SEZ for the development of SEZ. The villages were to be compensated with alternative gauchar land in return.
A petition moved before HC in 2011 by Navinal – one of the affected villages – stated that the village panchayat had limited gauchar land under its command and further dwindling of the area would be detrimental to villagers and also make sustenance of the cattle population difficult.
Subsequently, the government had proposed tranches of gauchar land in different villages, which the HC had shot down, insisting that the government must allot grazing land in the same village.
On Friday, Additional Advocate General Mitesh Amin told the HC that 17 hectare is already available as gauchar land in Navinal, and additionally 4 hectare of government land in the village has been reserved as grazing land by way of an order of June 29.
In an affidavit submitted by Kutch Collector Amit Arora before the court, it was stated that they had moved a proposal before the state government seeking to “resume” another 108 hectare from APSEZL, and the same was approved by way of a GR on July 4. This 108 hectare in Navinal, too, has now been reserved as gauchar land, Amin told the court.
The bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi instructed the government to implement the GR. It also said that it will hear the matter again on July 26 to check on the progress with respect to the implementation of the GR.