Land acquisition for Vedanta University: Status Quo announced by SC

The apex court on Friday ordered the Orissa government to maintain status Quo on the acquisition of 6000 hectares of land for establishing Vedanta University by UK based Vedanta group in Puri.

As per report of the sources, the apex court bench presided by Justice D K Jain and Justice H L Dattu after deep thought on the case ordered status quo on the possession, nature and character of land acquired thus stalling the Vedanta University project.

The state government and Anil Agarwal foundation appealed against the decision of the High Court of Orissa which by citing 17 reasons held that the procedure for land acquisition for the proposed Vedanta University project was illegal.

Sources reported that the high court had also directed Vedanta to return the land to its owners. Counsel Prashant Bhushan representing over half a dozen petitioners against the project said that the state government began acquiring land for setting up of a world class university by a group, which does not have the experience of establishing even a primary school.

He also highlighted the fact that the Land Acquisition Company Rules, 1963, had not been properly followed by the state government.

Another petitioner opposing the project contended that the proposed multi disciplinary university project would cause extreme debilitating impact on the eco system as well as the local bio-diversity.

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