Justice Dipankar Dutta of the Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the West Bengal Government not to make public the ‘‘secret’’ part of the agreement between Tata Motors and the state Government for the next two weeks. On Friday, the counsel for Tata Motors moved a petition apprehending that the secret part of the agreement might be disclosed by the state Government as well as the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation.
Advocate Samaraditya Pal, counsel for Tata Motors, moved a plea saying WBIDC had already published a portion of the agreement between the state Government and the company signed on March 9, 2007. He claimed the Government and the WBIDC violated legal provisions of the Right To Information (RTI) Act 2005 by disclosing the agreement.
WBIDC had disclosed the portion of the agreement in their website on September 5 after a directive from the Chief Information Commissioner of the state. The website disclosed the three-page agreement between the state Government and Tata Motors on September 5 even as discussions between the Government and the Trinamool Congress were continuing at the Raj Bhavan.
After Sudip Bandopadyay, Congress MLA and chairman of the Standing Committee on Business and Commerce, put pressure on the Government to make the agreement public, the Commerce and Industries Minster Nirupam Sen read out the portion of the agreement at a meeting of the committee on August 27.