Calcutta High Court today ruled that the Singur land acquisition “was made for the public purpose of employment generation and socio-economic development of the area”.

The verdict handed a morale-booster to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s industrialisation drive and lifted the last vestiges of a cloud on the Tata small-car plant that will make the world’s cheapest car, the Nano.

The ruling also appeared to have taken the wind out of the sails of the Trinamul Congress’s campaign against the project. Mamata Banerjee said the Supreme Court would be moved but the local Trinamul MLA claimed the party would now focus on a “door-to-door” campaign, possibly signalling a shift from the occasional assaults on the factory walls.

The high court rejected the three main grounds on which 11 petitions — all were clubbed by the court — had challenged the acquisition of 997 acres in Singur for the Tata plant. All the petitions were dismissed today.

Besides turning down the petitioners’ contention that the acquisition was not for public purpose, the court threw out a claim that the government did not follow the legal procedure to buy land.

The third ground — that the government went beyond its jurisdiction — was also overruled.

“We hold that there was no colourable exercise of power by the state government while acquiring land at Singur,” the division bench of Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Ghosh said in the 217-page judgment.

“The term ‘colourable exercise of power’ means going beyond one’s jurisdiction. In this case, the judges meant that the government did not abuse its administrative power while acquiring the land,” said Subrata Mukhopadhyay, a high court lawyer.

Chief minister Bhattacharjee said he was “happy”. “The verdict will strengthen the state government’s drive for industrialisation in the greater interest of the people,” Bhattacharjee said. “I appeal to all who have not yet collected their compensation cheques to come forward and take them.”