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Journalism of Courage
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.
Fridays decision comes after two separate benches of the Supreme Court successively recused from hearing the appeals.
A Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly recused itself from adjudicating the issue on January 21,while on January 5,another Bench of Justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik withdrew from the case.
The Bench of Justices Singhvi and Ganguly had withdrawn from the case on the ground that the latter judge had dealt with the matter as Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court. The Bench of Justices Raveendran and Patnaik refused to hear the issue to avoid any conflict of interest as Justice Patnaik hailed from Orissa.
Appearing for one of the petitioners against the project,counsel Prashant Bhushan contended that the state government began acquiring land for setting up a world class university by a group,which does not have the experience of establishing even a primary school.
He also contended that Land Acquisition Company Rules,1963,had not been properly followed by the state government.
The petitioners pointed out that the proposed site was close to Balukhand Konark Black Buck Sanctuary and a river.
The petitioners had also questioned the status of the company saying it was not properly formed as per the Company Act.
