Calcutta High Court tsunami case: While hearing an almost two-decade-old damage claim of the losses suffered during the 2004 tsunami, the Calcutta High Court has quashed an administrative order denying compensation to a plantation company, and directed the authority to pay in accordance with relevant rules.

Justice Apurba Sinha Ray, on February 5, said that the administration’s attempt to exclude the company from relief schemes based on its corporate status was legally unsustainable.

The administration denied the compensation, saying that the relief under the National Disaster Management guidelines was intended strictly for “small and marginal farmers”, and the petitioner falls in the corporate category, which does not fall under the guidelines’ purview

“If the petitioner is desirous of surrendering their possession in favour of the administration, the petitioner is entitled to claim compensation in respect of the relevant land being damaged due to a natural calamity which took place in the year 2004,” the court observed.