Vedanta Land acquisition illegal- SC

- fined 5 lakh - State Govt violated Article 14 of the Constitution of India-

By Bijay Mishra
Bhubaneswar, 12-4-23

After a landmark decision of Supreme Court of India on land acquisition of Tata for its Singur plant , leading to dethrone the Left Govt in West Bengal , again the SC has today in its judgment upholding the Odisha High Court order in CIVIL APPEAL NOS. 1144-1146 OF 2011, declared the Land Acquisition of Anil Agrawalla Foundation  of Vedanta at Puri illegal.

The SC observed that “High Court was justified in setting aside the entire acquisition proceedings, which has been vitiated by non-compliance of the statutory provisions under the Act, 1894 and the Rules, 1963 and vitiated by mala fides and favourism and is a Civil Appeal Nos. 1144-1146 of 2011 Page 101 of 103 . 

The SC observed hereinabove, “initially, 15,000 acres was proposed to be acquired, which is now reduced to 3837 acres. Meaning thereby, the proposal was for exaggerated demand. This was mala fide intention on the part of the appellant company / foundation. “

The SC observed that “agricultural lands belonging to 6000 families and their only source of livelihood is on the agricultural lands, which cannot be compensated in terms of money, therefore, the proposal made now has to be rejected outright.”

The SC observed that “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 favourism and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

 The SC imposed costs, which is quantified at Rs. 5 lakhs to be deposited by the appellant – beneficiary company – Anil Agarwal Foundation with the Registrar of this Court within a period of six weeks from today and on such deposit, the same be transferred to the Orissa State Legal Services Authority.

The Odisha Govt had signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) dated 19.07.2006 with  Vedanta Foundation to set up the university along with a self- contained township near Puri with an estimated cost of Rs. 15,000 crores. 

The dispute was with respect to the acquisition of about 6000 acres of land belonging to about 6000 families, affecting approximately 30,000 people.

"The SC order is the victory for Lord Jagannath whose land was being illegally acquired for the project," said Uma Ballav Rath, who has been spearheading the campaign against the proposed Vedanta project. “ 
In view of the above SC judgment , “ JANMAT “ demanded review of land acquisition process of some mega industrial & mines projects of the State .