The decade-old tussle between TCG Refineries, a company owned by Purnendu Chatterjee — co-owner of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd — and Haldia Development Authority (HDA) over 545 acres of land has now reached the Calcutta high Court.

TCG, which wanted to set up a refinery on the allotted land, has moved the High Court against the HDA’s decision to cancel the allotment in 2007.

The counsel for TCG, Saptangsu Basu, on Wednesday told Justice Tapen Sen of the High Court that the HDA could not cancel the allotment a decade after the company paid it Rs 10.5 crore.

Basu said the TCG had not been able to take the physical possession of the land because of illegal squatters. It was the duty of the HDA to remove the squatters from the allotted land, but the HDA cancelled the allotment of the land as the TCG did not start the project on the allotted land, Basu said.

In its petition, the company stated the TCG had moved ahead with the refinery project on the basis of a written commitment made to it for the allotment of 2,500 acres. The company had to spend Rs 12 crore to get necessary clearances from the Central government and other agencies like the Pollution Control Board, the TCG stated.

In 1994, the state government had in principal agreed to provide 2,500 acres to the TCG for setting up a refinery at Haldia.

The HDA had issued a consent letter to the TCG on June 27, 1995, to hand over the 2,500-acre land adjacent to the project site. But it had asked the Chatterjee Group to initially identify only 500 acres to start the project.

... contd.