Vedanta versity illegal:SC.

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Vedanta varsity illegal:SC

   The Supreme Court upholding an Odisha high court order of November 2010,ruled that acquisition of more than 8,000-acre land for Vedanta Group's proposed controversial university project along Puri-Konark Marine drive was illegal.

    Dismissing an appeal by Vedanta Group-controlled Anil Agarwal Foundation against the HC order,the bench of Justices M R Shah and Krishna Morarai observed 'non-application of mind" in the acquisition by the state government and " undue favors" shown to the company.

     "It is not appreciable why the government offered such an undue favor in favor of one trust/company.Thus, the entire acquisition proceedings and the benefits, which were proposed by the state government were vitiated by favoritism and violative of Article 14 of the constitution of India (equality before the law)," the bench said in the order.

   The apex court also imposed Rs 5 lakh as litigation cost on the foundation and asked it to deposit the amount with the SC registrar within six weeks.

   

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 The SC said the HC was justified in setting aside the entire acquisition proceedings, which has been vitiated by non-compliance of the statutory provisions and vitiated by mala fides.

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   The apex court pointed out the state government had ignored environmental aspects since two rivers" Nuanai" and "Nala" flow in the acquired land Balukhand wildlife sanctuary was located near it.Control of the river by the company would violate the Doctrine of Public Trust,the court said.

    Pointing out that the government is holding a public trust and has to deal with the lands belonging to private landowners,more particularly, agricultural landowners in accordance with law,the court said the Odisha government could have found out of any other public trusts or companies,were interested in establishing such a university instead of dealing with just one company.