Calcutta, may 15: A division bench of Calcutta High Court today issued an injunction order on the Bengal government’s acquisition of 2.02 acres of land in Malda that was to be handed over to Reliance Industries for constructing a commercial complex.

The plot at Narayanpur, located 16km from Malda town, belongs to a doctor, Shivaprasad Agarwal, who along with his wife had plans of setting up an oxygen cylinder-filling plant on it.

According to the case diary, the Malda-based doctor had purchased the plot in two phases in 1999. He had approached the West Bengal Financial Development Corporation (WBFDC) for a loan to set up the plant. The corporation agreed to give him Rs 1.24 crore.

“But on March 26, 2007, my client received an information over the telephone that his land had already been acquired by the government. He met the district magistrate of Malda and wanted to know the status of his land. The district magistrate asked him to appear before a hearing. In the hearing, the district magistrate requested him to collect the compensation against the land,” said Ardhendu Shekhar Biswas, the counsel appearing for the doctor in the high court.

In July last year, Biswas moved a petition before the high court to challenge the legality of the government’s acquisition of his land.

“The state did not issue any requisition and acquisition notice on the landlord which is mandatory in accordance to the Land Acquisition Act,” Biswas had argued in the court then.

After hearing the petition, Justice Dipankar Dutta had issued an injunction on the acquisition till December 2, 2007.

“But the matter did not come up for hearing before December 20 and the injunction order lapsed. In the meanwhile, the jurisdiction of the judges changed and the matter came up for hearing before Justice Jayanta Biswas. As Justice Biswas declined to pass any injunction order, we moved an appeal before the division bench,” the counsel said.

Today, after hearing both parties, the division issued the injunction order.

After acquiring the land, the government had also allegedly broken down the boundary wall constructed by the physician.

In their interim order, the division bench — comprising Justices P.K. Chattopadhaya and Tapan Mukherjee — directed the state government to reconstruct the boundary wall if the allegation was true.