Visva-Bharati’s eviction order against Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, to vacate 13 decimal of 1.38 acres of land on the university campus last year, was illegal, the district court in West Bengal’s Birbhum said on Wednesday.
In her order, seen by HT, district judge Sudeshna Dey Chatterjee noted that the eviction directive is “not legally sustainable and liable to be set aside”.
“We challenged the eviction order, saying the law it (varsity) cited was not applicable at the time when Sen’s father, Ashutosh Sen, took the land on lease from Visva-Bharati. Moreover, the university could not furnish any document relating to the lease agreement executed in 1943,” Sen’s lawyer Gorachand Chakraborty said.
Reacting to the district court’s order, acting vice-chancellor Sanjoy Kumar Malllick said: “We can comment only after studying it.”
‘Pratichi’, Sen’s home, stands on the sprawling campus at Bolpur in the district. The Prime Minister is the chancellor of the varsity.
In 2022, then vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty triggered a row by claiming that Sen is in possession of 1.38 acres of land on the Santiniketan campus. Chakrabarty said that Sen’s father Ashutosh had rented only 1.25 acres of land on a 99-year lease in 1943 and thus, the remaining 13 decimal should be returned to the university.
Three letters to this effect were also sent to Sen since January 24 last year and an eviction notice on March 17. Sen neither replied to the letters and notice nor appeared in person for the hearings.
{{/usCountry}}Three letters to this effect were also sent to Sen since January 24 last year and an eviction notice on March 17. Sen neither replied to the letters and notice nor appeared in person for the hearings.
{{/usCountry}}On April 19, Visva-Bharati’s joint registrar and estate officer, A K Mahato, passed the eviction order under the Public Premises (Eviction and Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971, saying the university would take possession of 13 decimals of land on the north-west corner of the plot on May 6.
“....the impugned property is beyond the canopy of Act of 1971,” the district court noted on Wednesday.
Sen’s lawyers moved Calcutta high court, which on May 5 ordered an interim stay on the eviction order. A bench of justice Bibhas Ranjan De also ordered that no action would be taken in the case till it is heard by the Birbhum district court.
On January 30 last year, chief minister Mamata Banerjee met Sen at his home and handed over a state land and revenue department record, which showed that all 1.38 acres covered by the property belonged to him through a mutation executed in 2006. The document was later challenged by the varsity before the local land records authority.