Godrej’s challenge

Godrej and Boyce has challenged the September 2022 order of the Maharashtra government awarding it Rs 264 crore as compensation in return for acquiring the company’s land at Vikhroli for the Bombay-Ahmedabad bullet train project. All other lands for the project have already been acquired, the state government informed the Bombay High Court (BHC) on November 21, 2022, The Free Press Journal (FPJ) reported the following day. Counsel for Godrej Navroz Seervai told BHC that the petition concerned the constitutional challenge to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition and Resettlement Act which exempted the bullet train project from social impact assessment carried out by experts.
The advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni urged the two-member bench to hear the matter expeditiously. Seervai said he would take three days to argue the main challenge. The BHC said it would commence hearing the matter from December 5.
A dispute over ownership of over 3,000 acres of land has been pending between the government and Godrej since 1973 and additionally the matter of the bullet train project since 2019. An entry point to one of the underground tunnels falls on the Godrej lands at Vikhroli, FPJ notes.