Santiniketan Land: Court quashes Visva-Bharati’s eviction order against Amartya Sen

A court in West Bengal’s Birbhum district on Wednesday dismissed Visva-Bharati’s order against Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to evict him from a piece of land in Santiniketan.

A bench of Birbhum district magistrate Sudeshna De (Chatterjee) held that Sen and his father, late Asutosh Sen, who had appealed against the eviction order issued by the university property officer, had been in possession of the entire 1.38 plots. Area of ​​land since the lease was granted in 1943.

The court quashed the eviction order issued against Sen on April 19, 2023, from a decimal 13 acres of the total 1.38 acres in Santiniketan. The court noted that the university authorities claimed that they were not aware that 1.25 acres of land had been leased until October 2006 when Sen filed a variation application for 1.38 acres of land, but surprisingly, they took the form of Action: Only issue notifications, including statutory notifications, in 2023.

She stated that the notification of March 17, 2023 and the subsequent actions taken by the university to require Sen to show cause and order his eviction from the 13 decimal plots of land he occupied were wrong, inconsistent with the law and therefore not legally possible. continued.

In the 26-page judgment, the court pointed out that neither the three notices nor the statutory notice specifically divided the part of the land that Sen was allegedly illegally holding and showed its dimensions.

The court held that it was an admitted fact that the appellant was residing abroad and said that a notice was issued calling for a survey of the property, but the eviction order was passed without providing any opportunity of hearing and without any survey of the land.

“It is very surprising that the university has been sleeping on this issue for 80 years without taking any effective measures in accordance with the law, refusing to give the appellant five months because he was abroad and expected to be given the same time to answer questions, “she observed.

The judge held that the university’s actions breached the rules of natural justice. Sen’s lawyers argued in court that the eviction order was passed arbitrarily and violated the principles of natural justice.

The appeal stated that the eviction notice was not issued by the university authorities until Sen commented on some incidents at Visva Bharati University. University authorities said a 99-year lease deed was signed on October 27, 1943 in favor of Asutosh Sen, father of late Amartya Sen, for an area of ​​1.25 acres.

The estate officer claimed that upon investigation it was discovered that the appellant had occupied 13 decimal places of land in excess of his rights without authorization.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from associated news agency – PTI)