The Anil Agarwal Foundation (AAF) today filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the verdict of the Orissa High Court, which on November 16, had quashed the land acquisition process of the Rs 15,000-crore Vedanta University Project, proposed to be set up by the foundation along the Puri-Konark marine drive.
"In our petition, we have held that the AAF is a public limited company. Moreover, no ordinance has been promulgated for the proposed University project as mentioned in the HC verdict. The Vedanta University Bill has been passed in the Orissa Legislative Assembly and pending for the Governor’s approval”, a top official of the Vedanta Group told Business Standard.
On the land acquisition process for the University project, he said, “The Orissa High Court had observed that the committee for land acquisition formed by the state government was not in strict conformity with the provisions of the land Acquisition Act. We have stated in our petition that this cannot be a ground to term the land acquisition process as 'illegal and void' and at best the committee can only be reconstituted.”
“The Orissa High Court had also stated in its judgement that the university project would take control of two rivers, Bhargavi and Nua Nai, flowing through the project site. However, we have clarified that we are not taking control of any river water. Besides, the streams within the site are not rivers, but flood water channels which would only be deepened and widened by the proposed university project”, he added
Earlier, a two-member division bench of the High Court consisting of Chief Justice V Gopal Gouda and Justice B P Das, who quashed the land acquisition for the University project, had also directed the Anil Agarwal Foundation, the promoter of the university, to return the acquired land to the owners. The judgement was in response to seven petitions and two Public Interest Litigations (PILs) which challenged the setting up of the proposed University on several grounds including that of faulty land acquisition processes which were made contrary to the provisions of Land Acquisition Act-1894, Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act-1984 and Land Acquisition (Companies) Rules-1963.
The petitions had pointed out that the project would have debilitating impact on the eco-system and varied bio-diversity of the locality. Similarly, the petitions had challenged the status of the Anil Agarwal Foundation that was changed to a ‘Public Company’ from a ‘Private Company’ named Vedanta Foundation in June, 2006 for the very purpose of acquiring the land.
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The court verdict running into over 100 pages found that the proposed University project was faulty on 17 counts. Accordingly, the court quashed the land acquisition notifications for the project.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had clarified in the state assembly that land acquisition for the proposed University project was not illegal.
"After receipt of intimation of the Anil Agarwal Foundation about the change of its status from a private to a public company, notification under Sub-Section 1 of Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act was issued in respect of 7184.37 acres of land which was subsequently reduced to 6137.90 acres. Acquisition has since been made in respect of 3495.21 acres of private land while government land to the extent of 509.27 acres has also been leased out to the Foundation”, Patnaik had said in the assembly on November 26.
On the status of the AAF, he sated, “The Anil Agarwal Foundation had confirmed to the state government regarding the change of its status from a private to a public company with effect from November 23, 2006 by a resolution of the Extraordinary General Meeting pursuant to the approval of the regional director, Department of Company Affairs. The company subsequently produced a letter dated February 21, 2007 from D K Gupta, Registrar of Companies to its address stating that the company has complied with the provisions of requirements of Section 25 of the Companies' Act and accordingly, the status of the company has been changed from a private company to a public limited company. A copy of this letter has also been filed before the High Court by the Foundation on June 20, 2008”.
The multi-disciplinary university was to have an intake of 100,000 students will be spread over 6892 acres with a total construction area of 273.68 lakh sq metres.