Court rejects SC Chem's plea for land

The Delhi High Court has dismissed SC Chemicals petition to the central government, seeking directions for allotment of a plot at the Kandla Port Trust, for the construction of a pipeline facility for castor oil export.

While dismissing a petition for lack of territorial jurisdiction to decide the matter, a division bench comprising Justice Markendeya Katju and Justice Madan B Lokur said: "Since the land was at Kandla (Gujarat), the petitioner's office was at Kandla, and the impugned order was passed at Kandla, in our opinion, only the Gujarat High Court possessed jurisdiction in the matter."

The Kandla Port Trust chairman has rejected the company's application for the allotment of a 40,000-sq metre plot for erection of storage, handling and pipeline facilities for export of castor oil and manufacturing derivatives of castor oil through its 100 per cent export-oriented unit.

The respondents had stated the company had not made any application in the prescribed format.

According to the court, public property can be transferred only by public auction or public tender after advertising in a well-known newspaper with a wide circulation, instead of an application.

"Merely because some illegality might had been committed earlier, it did not mean that illegality should be perpetuated," the judges said.