Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) In a repeat, another bench of the Supreme Court Friday refused to hear the Orissa government’s petition on Vedanta University, noting that one of the judges had dealt with the case during his stint in Orissa High Court. The is the second time the apex court avoided taking up the petition challenging the Orissa High Court verdict quashing the acquisition of land for the proposed Rs.15,000 crore multi-disciplinary university to come up in Puri.

The apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi noted that Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly was one of the judges on the bench that dealt with the case during his stint in Orissa High Court.

Justice Ganguly has served the Calcutta, Patna, Orissa and Madras high courts. He joined the Orissa High Court as its senior-most judge April 21, 2006. He became the acting chief justice Jan 28, 2007 and chief justice March 2, 2007. He was transferred to Madras High Court in May 2008.

The Supreme Court bench of Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice A.K. Patnaik had recused itself from hearing the Vadenta case Jan 5, 2011 as Justice Patnaik hailed from Orissa. This was done to exclude any remote possibility of conflict of interest.

The Orissa government and Anil Agarwal Foundation, the promoter of the Vedanta University, moved the apex court challenging the Nov 16, 2010 verdict of the High Court faulting the land acquisition procedure for the project on 17 counts.

The Orissa government had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Anil Agarwal Foundation for setting up Vedanta University July 16, 2006.

The high court, while holding land acquisition as illegal, had directed the promoters of the university project to return the land to their original owners.

A number of petitions, including the public interest litigations, had contended that land acquisition procedure under the Land Acquisition Company Rules, 1963 was not adhered to.

The high court was also moved by a local Congress leader Umaballav Rath, who had contended that the proposed Vedanta University would adversely impact the bio-diversity of the coastal city of Puri and also its ecology since it was near the Balukhand Konark Black Buck Sanctuary and a river.

The petitioners had also objected to the inclusion of a large area of Lord Jagannath temple land for the proposed university.