Cuttack, May 20: Orissa High Court today refused to grant an interim stay to the land acquisition process undertaken by the state government for the Posco steel plant.

The court, however, issued notices to the state government on a writ petition seeking quashing of the land acquisition proceedings.

Chief Justice V. Gopal Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra fixed May 25 for hearing on the petition, while directing the state government to file a reply and clarify its stand by then.

The division bench also issued notices to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and the state government on another writ petition challenging the forest clearance granted in favour of the Posco steel plant project.

Nishakar Khatua and five other residents of Govindpur-Dhinkia area, which falls under the proposed Posco project site, had filed two separate petitions for quashing forest clearance granted by the MoEF and the land acquisition proceedings initiated by the state government.

The petition contended that the state government had issued notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act for undertaking acquisition for a “public purpose” and at “government expense” when the entire acquisition of land is “apparently for a private limited company”.

“The Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (IIDCO) is not competent to acquire land exclusively for any particular company,” the petitioners contended, while challenging land acquisition proceedings related to Dhinkia, Govindpur, Bhuyanpal, Polanga, Nolia Sahi, Bayanala Kandha and Nuagaon.

The petitioner pointed out that neither the preamble nor the contents of the Act that had set up IIDCO, justify or authorise it to become a middleman for acquiring private land for any specific non-government or private company.

The mechanism has been devised “to illegally evade the mandatory provisions of Land Acquisition (Companies) Rules” and also to further the interest of a private company, the petitioners said.

The six residents of Govindpur-Dhinkia area, in their petition, have challenged the forest clearance granted in favour of the Posco steel plant project on the ground that it violated the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

According to the petition around 74 per cent of 1620.496 hectares to be utilised for the project comes under the forest category and there are at least 3,575 families including the petitioners who will be affected in terms of livelihood and face displacement by the diversion of the forest land.

Claiming to be in the category of ‘other forest dwellers’ the petitioners said they have been primarily residing on forestland for more than 75 years prior to December 13, 2005. They contended that granting of forest clearance for the project violated Section 4 (5) of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.