Calcutta, Aug. 10: A high court division bench today asked the state to produce the “secret document” that had forced the government to expedite land acquisition for the Tata Motors unit in Singur.

“You place the document. Since it’s secret, we will not make it public and return it to you soon after going through it,” Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice P.C. Ghosh told advocate-general Balai Ray.

During the hearing of the case relating to land acquisition in Singur, Ray said the government was desperately looking for investors as it felt that the problem of unemployment could not be solved unless new industries were set up and more jobs created.

“The government was placing attractive offers before investors. If there was any delay in handing over the land to the Tatas in Singur, the company would have shifted its plant to Uttarakhand,” the advocate-general said.

He added that the government had received a “secret document” according to which Uttarakhand was offering a better deal to the Tatas for setting up the plant.

When the chief justice asked Ray whether the government was ready to produce the document before the court, Ray said there was no problem but the document could not be made public.

Ray justified the land acquisition in Singur and said all 10 cases challenging the process should not be maintained as they were “politically motivated”. They were intended to “malign the government”.

Ray quoted before the court Amartya Sen’s interview with the The Telegraph in which the Nobel laureate said even London and Manchester were built on farmland. “Our state cannot lag behind when the world is wooing industrialists,” Ray said.