Status quo on land acquisition
New Delhi, January. 28: The fate of the ambitious `15,000 crore Vedanta university proposed to be set up by UK-based Mr Anil Agarwal in Orissa virtually hanged in a balance with the Supreme Court on Friday ordering “status quo” on acquiring of a huge chunk of land for the ambitious project.
The status quo order was passed by a bench of Justices D. K. Jain and H. L. Dattu, while admitting the appeals of Orissa government and the Anil Agarwal Foundation against the state High Court’s order striking down the proposal for acquiring 5,600 hectares for the university project.
The land planned to be handed over by the Orissa government for the project was a mix of forest, non-forest government land and a portion acquired from the farmers, which was intended to be set up close to the historic city of Puri.
While striking down the government decision to acquire such a huge chunk of the land for a private trust, the High Court had ordered the return of the land acquired from the farmers and stop the process of handing over the forest and government land to the foundation.
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