The court quashed the notifications issued by the Maharashtra government seeking to acquire land from Tata Power Company Limited, citing violations of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act.
In March 2025, the Bharatiya Janata Party issued a notification declaring 84 hectares of land near the Thokarwadi Dam and Reservoir as an industrial area. This land belongs to Tata Power Company Limited and serves as the catchment area for their 75-megawatt Bhivpuri Hydro Station and proposed 1,000-megawatt Bhivpuri Pumped Storage Project.
In June 2018, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis wrote to the late industrialist Ratan Tata proposing that a portion of Tata Power’s land in Pune be made available for 'vedic pandits to take up chanting'. The Maharashtra government had intended to transfer this catchment area to Maharishi Vedoddharak Foundation for a project worth Rs 1,500 crores, featuring a wellness centre and an Ayurvedic college.
However, Tata Power challenged the move, contending that the land had been given to its predecessors over a century ago for the public purpose of generating hydroelectricity. The company argued that the government violated the 2013 Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act to benefit a private company.
On Thursday, a bench of Justices Manish Pitale and Shreeram V Shirsat set aside the March 2025 notification declaring the land an industrial area and its subsequent acquisition by the private company. The court criticized the acquisition of an operational dam’s catchment area for spiritual and leisure activities, stating, 'Can this be at the expense of the hydro-electric projects of TPCL and its catchment area?'.
The court also cited a government resolution prohibiting development within 500 metres of a dam’s high-flood line, and said the land 'cannot be used for development activity'.
Source:
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