Blow to Odisha govt as SC upholds HC verdict, rules land acquisition for Vedanta varsity Illegal
By Pravukalyan Mohapatra
Bhubaneswar, April 13 : Dealing a body blow to the proposed Vedanta University at Puri in Odisha, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the verdict of High Court of Orissa which had ruled the land acquisition in the pilgrim city for the varsity is “illegal” and void. In its judgment, the apex court said 10,000 acres of land acquired by Anil Agarwal Foundation for the proposed university is illegal. The top court also directed the State government and Anil Agarwal Foundation to return the acquired land to the farmers.
While reprimanding the state government for such illegal land acquisition process, the top court also slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the Anil Agarwal foundation. The money will be deposited at the office of the Registrar of Supreme Court and later sent to Odisha State Legal Aid Cell.
In 2010, the High Court of Orissa had also termed the land acquisition by the State Government for the proposed university as illegal.
The proposed Vedanta University, India’s answer to Stanford and Harvard, suffered a blow after the HC ruled the land acquisition for the project as illegal and void.
The Rs 15,000 crore multi-disciplinary university was being built by Anil Agarwal Foundation. It was proposed to spread over an area of 6,892 acres on Puri-Konark marine drive overlooking the Bay of Bengal.
The High Court had also directed Vedanta company to return to the original owners the land awarded to them.
At least two PILs and six individual petitions had been filed in the High Court since 2007 challenging the state government’s notification on the land acquisition procedures.
The petitions had said that land acquisition company rules, 1963 had not been properly followed.
The proposed multi-disciplinary university project would have caused an extreme debilitating impact on the ecosystem as well as the local biodiversity, the petitioners had contended.
Challenging the High Court verdict, the Odisha government and Vedanta had moved to the Supreme Court. The apex court on Wednesday quashed their petitions.
