The government has inflicted upon itself a penalty of Rs 18 crore that it now has to pay as compensation to Krishnapada Pramanik and his family for acquiring their land in Rajarhat.

Calcutta High Court ordered the government on Tuesday to part with this amount following its failure to heed the land administrative tribunal’s 1994 ruling to pay the Pramanik Rs 2 crore for taking over their 39.2 acres for the New Town development.

Instead of paying the compensation, the government had moved an appeal before the high court, but did not follow the judgment when it was passed last year, inviting contempt.

Krishnapada died as the case was in progress but his wife, Bhagyabati, and other family members did not give up.

The Pramanik family was not celebrating when Metro caught up with them at their Krishnapur home in Rajarhat because they expected the government to go to the Supreme Court.

“We will only celebrate when we get the money. We have spent around Rs 60 lakh in litigation and we have fought the battle together,” said Rameshwar Pramanik, 64, the eldest son of Krishnapada and Bhagyabati.

Rameshwar and his six brothers and two sisters lost their mother, too, in 2002.

Some 500 acres were acquired for the New Town project in 1982, said Durgapada Basu, the lawyer of the state land acquisition department.

Most had accepted the compensation of Rs 5 lakh an acre the government had then paid, but 11 landowners had moved the tribunal.

Eight of the cases have been disposed of and the rest are awaiting the high court’s verdict.

In the Pramanik case, the state’s appeal against the tribunal judgment came up for hearing last year before a division bench headed by Justice B. Bhattacharya.

On September 10, 2007, the bench had ordered the government to pay compensation to the family within a month in accordance with the changed official norms. The court also asked the state to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 to the petitioners.

“But the government did not carry out the court order and my client had moved a contempt case,” Subhabrata Das, the lawyer appearing for the petitioners, said.

On Tuesday, the division bench of justices Bhattacharya and R.N. Banerjee asked the government to pay the compensation along with 30 per cent solatium, accumulated interest on the compensation and other statutory dues. All this adds up to Rs 18 crore.