Mukesh Ambani: Scanner on policy, not individual cases

New Delhi, Dec. 4 (PTI): The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre, the Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan governments and Reliance Industries on a petition filed by an MP challenging the constitutional validity of setting up special economic zones in the national capital region.

When the petitioner’s counsel repeatedly tried to draw attention to his claim that Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited had been allotted 25,000 acres by the Haryana government at “throwaway prices”, the court said it would not go into individual cases.

“We are only concerned with the constitutional validity of the acts under challenge,” the judges added and asked the respondents to file replies.

Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal and a rebel Congress MP, said in his petition that the SEZ act, 2005, and the Haryana SEZ act were not only mutually conflicting but also violated the National Capital Regional Board Act, 1985, which envisaged uniform and planned development of the regions.

When a bench of Justices K.G. Balakrishnan and D.K. Jain asked the MP why he had not raised the matter in Parliament, counsel R. Nariman, appearing for Bishnoi, said that despite him raising his voice in the House and at public forums, the Centre and the state governments have remained adamant on their decision to set up the SEZs.

According to the petition, the SEZs were aimed at creating land-grabbing opportunities and placing vast tracts of prime plots — both public and private — in the exclusive control of private fiefdoms.

Quoting a finance ministry report, the petition said the loss to the central government from exemptions given to various SEZs would be more than Rs 1,75,487 crore.