NEW DELHI: The decision comes 13 years after victims filed a PIL against allotment of 231 acres of gauchar land to Adani Ports.
The Gujarat government informed the High Court that it will reclaim nearly 108 hectares of ‘gauchar’ (grazing) land previously given to an Adani Group entity in 2005 near Mundra port in the state’s Kutch district. This decision comes 13 years after residents of Navinal village filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the allotment of 231 acres of gauchar land to Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd. Although the state revenue department made the allotment in 2005, the villagers only became aware of it in 2010 when APSEZ began fencing the gauchar land it had acquired. According to the residents, the village was left with just 45 acres of grazing land following the allotment of 231 out of 276 acres to APSEZ.
They argued that the move was illegal, given the existing shortage of grazing land in the village, and that the land was a common and community resource. In 2014, the High Court disposed of the PIL after the state government stated in its affidavit that the deputy collector had ordered an additional 387 hectares of government land to be granted for grazing purposes. However, when this did not happen, a contempt petition was filed in the High Court. In 2015, the state government filed a review petition before the High Court, contending that only 17 hectares of land were available for allocation to the panchayat. The state government then proposed to allocate the remaining land nearly 7 kilometers away, which the villagers found unacceptable, arguing that it was not feasible for cattle to travel such a long distance. In April 2024, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi directed the Additional Chief Secretary of the Revenue Department to devise a solution. On Friday, the ACS, through an affidavit, informed the bench that the state government had decided to take back nearly 108 hectares (or 266 acres) of gauchar land previously allocated to APSEZ.
The revenue department informed the court that the state government
would “replenish” 129 hectares of land as gauchar and return it to the village, using both its own land and the 108 hectares being reclaimed from the Adani group firm.