Supreme Court Stays Jamnagar Land Dispute Trial Between Reliance and BPCL
The Supreme Court has stayed the trial proceedings in a land dispute between Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), which has been pending for nearly three decades in Gujarat’s Jamnagar.
A Bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Prasanna B Varale granted interim relief to Reliance while hearing its challenge to a Gujarat High Court order of May 2025. The High Court had allowed BPCL to amend its plaint to include fresh reliefs like declaration of title, recovery of possession and mesne profits over land at Moti Khavdi, Jamnagar.
The dispute dates back to the early 1990s, when the Gujarat government allotted around 349 hectares of land to BPCL for setting up a crude oil terminal. BPCL alleged that Reliance Petroleum Ltd. (predecessor of RIL) encroached upon portions of this land by extending its boundary wall.
BPCL filed a civil suit in 1995, seeking to restrain Reliance from interfering with its possession. Over the years, amendments were made to the plaint, surveys were ordered, and multiple adjournments delayed progress. In 2024, a satellite survey by the State agency BISAG-N suggested that Reliance had indeed occupied parts of BPCL’s land. This led BPCL to seek additional reliefs, which the High Court permitted in May 2025.
Reliance appealed before the Supreme Court, which has now stayed the trial court proceedings until further orders. The matter will be finally decided by the apex court.
