By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Former Union Environment – Forests and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who had on 2 occasions, rejected the acquisition of 6000 acres for establishment of Vedanta University in Puri in Odisha, reacted following the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of Orissa High Court which had ruled the land acquisition for establishment of Vedanta University in Puri null and void.
“As Env & Forests Minister I had rejected the acquisition of 6000 acres along the Puri-Konark marine drive since it violated envmntl laws. As Rural Dev Min I objected as it violated land acquisition laws. Today 12 yrs later SC has given its verdict AGAINST the acquisition. Bravo!,’ Ramesh, said in a tweet.
The Supreme Court issued its judgment on appeals filed by the Orissa Government and Anil Aggarwal Foundation against Orissa High Court’s 2010 decision of quashing the land acquisition for establishment of Vedanta University. The bench of Justices M. R. Shah and Krishna Murari have heard the case and issued a 103 pages order.
“The University in question was/is non-existent as no university has come into existence under the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 nor under the Orissa Universities Act. The case on behalf of the appellant that the State legislature has already passed a bill to establish the university is neither here nor there as even as per the appellant’s response, the same is pending assent of the Governor,” the court order said.
“The State Government could not have considered the proposal from only one beneficiary/trust. There may be other public trusts /companies, who might be interested in establishing such a university. Even no proper inquiry seems to have been initiated by the Government/Collector while considering the proposal by the beneficiary company,” the court further observed.
“It is not appreciable why the Government offered such an undue favour in favour of one trust/ company. Thus, the entire acquisition proceedings and the benefits, which were proposed by the State Government were vitiated by favouritism and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India,” the Apex Court ordered.
The court not only dismissed the petition filed against the Orissa HC order but also asked the appellant – beneficiary company – Anil Agarwal Foundation, to deposit Rs. 5 lakhs with the Registrar of this Court within a period of six weeks from today. On such deposit, the same be transferred to the Orissa State Legal Services Authority, the Court said.
Initially, the company asked the Odisha Government specifically to make available 15,000 acres of contiguous land around Nuanai, Puri District in Bhubaneshwar-Puri-Konark by June 15, 2006. The process for identifying the suitable locations was by the company. The State had signed an MoU with the company MoU dated 19.07.2006.
The bench noted that initially, 15,000 acres of the agricultural lands was sought to be acquired for the proposed university. Ultimately, approximately 8000 acres of the land belonging to the private landowners / agricultural landowners came to be acquired.
As on 19.07.2006, it was a private company having three Directors on its Board and less than seven members. It is the case on behalf of the appellants that as subsequently the Anil Agarwal Foundation, which at the relevant time was a private company was converted to public company as on 13.12.2006, which was an attempt to get out of the statutory provision under the Act, 1894, observed the court.
