'Vitiated by favouritism and violative of Art 14,' SC upholds HC's order quashing land acquisition for Vedanta University [Read Judgment]

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Orissa High Court's 2010 decision to quash acquisition of 6,000 acres of land in year 2006 for Anil Agrawal led M/s Vedanta Resources Ltd to establish a university over there.

The top court said the entire proposal initiated by the state government at the instance of the company was "vitiated by favouritism and violative of right to equality guaranteed under the Constitution".

A bench of Justices M R Shah and Krishna Murari dismissed the appeal filed by Anil Agrawal Foundation against the judgement with Rs five lakh cost.

The court also noted "mala fide" intention on the part of the company which initially sought acquisition for 15,000 acres of land and subsequently reduced it to 3837 acres.

Interestingly, the court also pointed out if the acquisition near beach had been allowed to happen, the company would have taken control of two rivers, besides a wild sanctuary, affecting the ecological balance.

"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," the bench said in strong remarks against the Naveen Patnaik government.

The court said a fresh proposal made now by the company for reduced land has to be rejected outright as the lands to be acquired are agricultural lands belonging to 6000 families, their only source of livelihood, which cannot be compensated in terms of money.

It also noted "the most important aspect" indicating the non-application of mind by the state government was on environmental aspect and passing of two rivers from the acquired lands in question.

"Upon the lands in question two rivers namely Nuanai and Nala are flowing, which as such were acquired by the state government. How the maintenance of the rivers etc can be handed over to the beneficiary company. If the lands in question are continued to be acquired by the beneficiary company, the control of the rivers would be with the said private company, which would violate the Doctrine of Public Trust. Even requiring the beneficiary company to maintain the flow of the two rivers may also affect the residents of the locality at large," the bench said.

The court also said the High Court has rightly observed that the large-scale construction for the establishment of the proposed university will also adversely affect the Wildlife Sanctuary, entire Eco system and the ecological environment in the locality.

"Even the distance of the sea from the proposed Vedanta University is approximately 2000 meters. Merely because the Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary is separated from the proposed site by a highway Puri-Konark Marine Drive, cannot be a ground to acquire the huge lands for the proposed university," the bench said.

"We are more than satisfied that the High Court has not committed any error and in fact the High Court was justified in setting aside the entire acquisition proceedings, which has been vitiated by non-compliance of the statutory provisions under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and the Rules, 1963 and vitiated by mala fides and favourism and is a clear case of the non-application of mind on relevant aspects. We are in complete agreement with the view taken by the High Court," the bench said.

[Read Judgment]