The high court will hear on Tuesday a plea against the government’s decision to end a private firm’s lease for the 400-acre Nalban complex owned by the state-owned West Bengal Fisheries Development Corporation.

Bansal Leisure Parks Limited, which runs the Salt Lake complex on a 30-year lease granted during the Left rule, has sought a stay on a April 23 notice ordering it to vacate the premises.

The case came up before the division bench of Chief Justice A.K. Mishra and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on Monday but the hearing was adjourned after government pleader Ashok Banerjee sought time for “necessary instructions” from the government.

Banerjee earlier submitted: “The previous (Left Front) government had granted the lease at a nominal amount. The fisheries development corporation can earn much more (from the complex).”

While adjourning the hearing, Chief Justice Mishra told Banerjee: “We are not giving any direction now. But ask the government not to take any action against the company till the case is disposed of.”

Bansal Leisure Parks pays the government Rs 3 lakh a month as rent, which, according to the agreement, escalates at the rate of 5 per cent every five years. The complex has six ceremony venues, each of which is rented out for Rs 2-5 lakh a day, said managing director Bharat Jain. He claimed the company had not violated any rule and there had never been any default on rent.

Government officials said the company had first been given the lease for the banks of the wetland in 1991. The lease area was extended to cover the entire 400-acre complex in 2010, when Kiranmoy Nanda, a Rajya Sabha member from the Samajwadi Party, was fisheries minister in the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government.

“The 30-year extension was granted after the company proposed a Rs 50-crore eco tourism project. The project, however, was never sanctioned as the Left Front went out of power in 2011,” said an official.

S.K. Kapoor, counsel for the lessee, submitted before the bench: “Nalban, a tourist spot, was constructed by my client on the basis of a seven-year lease agreement with the WBFDC in 1991. In 1998, the WBFDC renewed the lease till 2010. In 2010, the term was further extended by 30 years.”

A source said the Trinamul government also wanted to reclaim some other properties leased out during the Left rule on the grounds of irregularities in the agreements.