Dikhyaa Mohanty 
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court severely criticized the Odisha government for giving the Vedanta group a “undue favor” and revoked the purchase of 8,000 acres of land from about 6,000 farmers for a planned university in the Puri district, which is close to the Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary. It said that favoritism “vitiated the entire exercise.” The area was taken over, according to the court, in contravention of both environmental and land acquisition laws since building there would permanently harm the ecology. Additionally, it cost the Anil Agarwal Foundation Rs 5 lakh.
A bench of Justices M R Shah and Krishna Murari criticized the state for its disproportionate generosity at the expense of farmers’ interests and listed a number of disproportionate benefits that were “proposed/in fact, offered and given to the beneficiary company” in rejecting the Anil Agarwal Foundation’s appeal against the Orissa High Court decision to halt the acquisition. The foundation was also ordered to pay a cost of Rs. 5 lakh by the court. The court noted that two rivers, Nuanai and Nala, ran through the newly acquired territory, and that the private firm would have jurisdiction over them, in violation of the public trust concept.
The court stated that the state had acquired the land “in utter disregard” of the law and that the HC was correct to invalidate the purchase since the government had favored the private firm, which was afterwards claimed to have been changed to a public corporation in order to get the land.
