India’s Supreme Court takes up the appeal by the Odisha government and Vedanta University against the high court judgment
January 29th, 2011
Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.
The Supreme Court on Friday admitted petitions of Anil Agarwal Foundation and the Orissa government challenging the Orissa High Court , which ruled acquisition of over 6,000 hectares for an international university in Puri was illegal. …
The state government and Anil Agarwal Foundation, in separate special leave petitions told the apex court that the appellant foundation is a public limited company under the Companies Act.
The state government argued that the land acquired for the mega university was not illegal. The high court had held that land acquisition was not permissible under Section 40(1)( a) of the Land Acquisition Act. Earlier, two different benches of the apex court refused to hear the case as one judge, each, was linked to the adjudication of the issue earlier. The petitions were admitted by a bench comprising Justice DK Jain and Justice HL Dattu.
… Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had made a statement in the assembly denying that an ordinance was passed to build the university. "The reference to the ordinance is baffling. The fact is that no ordinance has ever been promulgated by the government for establishing the proposed Vedanta University. Under the UGC Regulations , 2003, a university can be set up by an Act of Parliament or state legislature by a Section 25 company or a trust or a registered society. The promoter of the proposed university, the foundation is a "not for profit" company registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act" .
Following is an excerpt from a report in Indian Express.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Orissa government to maintain status quo on acquisition of 6,000 hectares of land for setting up an international university by UK-based Vedanta group in the holy city of Puri.
A Bench of Justices D K Jain and H L Dattu passed the order on appeals filed by the Orissa government and the Anil Agarwal Foundation against an Orissa High Court decision that land acquisition procedures for the proposed university project was illegal.
This has been widely reported in various media but most have not analysed the ruling properly. The best analysis is done in the Odia paper Sambada. Following are screen copies from its site.
Entry Filed under: Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri- Khurda area (1),Vedanta University, Puri