An unrelenting legal battle of 13 years by villagers has forced the Gujarat government to decide to give back to them nearly 108 hectares of pasture land that it had handed over to an Adani Group company.

The state on Friday informed Gujarat High Court that it would take back nearly 108 hectares of gauchar (grazing) land it had given to Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd near Mundra port in Kutch district in 2005.

Although the state revenue department had made the allotment — of 231 acres of grazing land — in 2005, residents of Navinal village came to know about it in 2010 when APSEZ started fencing the gauchar land. Villagers said this left them with just 45 acres of grazing land.

In a public interest plea moved in the high court, they contended the land transfer was illegal since the village already faced a shortage of grazing land. They added that the pasture allotted to APSEZ was common land and a community resource.

In 2014, the high court disposed of the plea after the state government said the deputy collector had passed an order granting an additional 387 hectares of government land for grazing.

But that did not happen, and a contempt petition was filed.

In 2015, the state government filed a review petition saying the available land for allocation to the panchayat was only 17 hectares.

It proposed to allocate the remaining land nearly 7km away, which the villagers refused.

In April 2024, the division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi directed the additional chief secretary of the revenue department to come up with a solution.

On Friday, the bureaucrat informed the bench about the state’s decision to take back nearly 108 hectares — or 266 acres — of gauchar land from the allotment to APSEZ.

The state told the court it would “replenish” 129 hectares of land as gauchar and give it back to the village, for which it will use some government land and the 108 hectares to be taken back from the Adani group firm.

The bench directed the state government to implement this resolution and adjourned the matter for now.