The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the petition of Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) demanding withdrawal of cases pending against it in the Orissa and Calcutta High courts and transferring them to the apex court. The cases relate to the unilateral extension of Kolkata port limits.
Rejecting the petition, Justice GS Singhvi said, the Supreme Court is already burdened with too many cases and there is no harm in continuing hearing of the case relating to the KoPT move in respective high courts.
“The petition of KoPT demanding withdrawal of cases from the Orissa and Calcutta High Courts and transferring them to the Supreme Court has been rejected by the apex court. So the hearing on the petitions opposing extension of Kolkata port limits by KoPT will continue in the two High Courts,” said Sarthak Nayak, counsel for Dhamara Ports Company Ltd.
Kolkata-based Eastern Navigation Private Limited (ENPL, had filed a lawsuit in the Calcutta High Court, seeking immediate withdrawal of the KoPT notifications of October 22, 2010 and November 10, 2010. Earlier this year, the Keonjhar Nava Nirman Parishad, an NGO, had filed a PIL (public interest litigation) in the Orissa High Court seeking quashing of the KoPT notification of November 10, 2010.
The territorial dispute over coastal waters between Orissa and the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) had reached the apex court with the KoPT authorities filing a petition in the Supreme Court in June, demanding withdrawal of cases pending in the Orissa and Calcutta High Courts.
The Orissa government on August 5 has filed a petition in the Supreme Court (SC), challenging the KoPT move to extend port limits.
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The unilateral extension of Kolkata port limits had snowballed into a major controversy with the Orissa government vociferously protesting the move. The state was sore over the fact that it was not consulted by KoPT before issue of the notification.
The state government had argued that the extension of the Kolkata port limits would seriously jeopardize the operations of the minor ports coming up on the state's coastline. At a recent meeting called by the state government, the developers of Dhamara, Kirtania and Astaranga ports had strongly opposed the KoPT move.
On January 20 this year, the Orissa government had shot off a strong letter to the Centre on the issue.
The revised limits of KoPT extends more than 200 km south of Haldia into the Bay of Bengal covering an area of 28,646 sq km, blocking the entire coast of North Orissa where seven ports are being developed.
The revised limits will block the access to Dhamara port and other proposed ports north of Dhamara including Chudamani, Chandipur, Inchudi, Subarnarekha mouth, Bichitrapur and Bahabalpur.