Iconic Ambassador car long dead, company locked in land case with West Bengal govt
Hindustan Motors claims the state govt seized its closed plant unlawfully, while Mamata Banerjee govt says unutilised land taken back
The legendary Ambassador sedan may have been reduced to mere nostalgia, but its mother company, Kolkata-based Hindustan Motors Limited, continues to be entangled in a legal battle with the West Bengal government over the possession of its production plant.
The company has alleged that the state unlawfully took possession of its plant in Hooghly district without notice, though it is the subject of a case pending in the Supreme Court, PTI has reported.
The government has shot back saying the state had techically taken back 395 acres of land in 2022 from the company, which has been declared financially sick, as the land was unutilised. The company was given ample opportunities to demonstrate its use, which it failed to do, a land department official told PTI.
Wrongful seizure, says Hindustan Motors
The row is around the Uttarpara plant, where the iconic Ambassador cars were manufactured.
The long-pending land matter came up again in a regulatory filing by Hindustan Motors, which said that on July 11, around 11 am, government officials and police, with some and others, entered the plant premises and "wrongfully seized" its property, including documents, machinery, equipment, licensed weapons and even the customs warehouse.
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That day, and then on July 14, the company filed a complaint to the special secretary of the state land department.
Since the matter is next listed for July 22 in the SC, the company said, the state government had agreed not to take any coercive action till then. “The suo motu action taken by the concerned department of the Government of West Bengal, despite our Special Leave Petition pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, has caused considerable prejudice to our challenge,” the company's statement read.
Ambassador plant closed since 2014
The Uttarpara factory stopped production in May 2014.
The state, in an order of November 2022, thus took back the 395 acres given to the company for industrial use since it was no longer being utilised for the purpose.
It followed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's announcement that since there was a scarcity of land for industry, the state would take back such land lying unutilised and give it to newer entrepreneurs.
In all, in Uttarpara, Hindustan Motors had around 720 acres. It sold around 314 acres to Sriram group in 2009 at ₹285 crore for real estate development, the PTI reported said.
What court has said
The matter is now in the country's top court as Hindustan Motors failed to get any relief from the Calcutta High Court.
In May, the HC dismissed its petition against an order of the West Bengal Land Reforms and Tenancy Tribunal allowing resumption — in simpler terms, the state taking back the land — under an acquisition law of 1953.
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Kolkata and some other parts of India continue to have old Ambassador cars running mostly as taxis. The car also forms part of nostalgia for generations, especially since it was a status symbol being the preferred vehicle for governments and elites from right into the 1990s.
