(ET)
The Gujarat high court on Tuesday castigated the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) for paying a meagre sum as rent to a landowner, and leaving him in limbo by not buying the land parcel outright for years together, even as its value keeps multiplying because it is now in an Ahmedabad town planning scheme.
The bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh Shastri directed ONGC to complete in one year the acquisition process for the 10,034-square-metre plot in Vastral, which has been in its possession, on temporary acquisition for oil extraction, since 1996. The court also ordered ONGC to consider raising the rent, from the present Rs 30 per square metre per year to Rs 12,000 per square metre per year, within a month.
