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Amartya Sen had filed a petition before the high court for interim relief after the university's Joint Registrar and Estate Officer issued an order asking him to leave 0.13 acres (5,500 square feet) of land at his ancestral home by May 6.
The Calcutta High Court granted interim relief to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen recently by prohibiting Visva Bharati University from acting on its decision asking him to relinquish a portion of his land at his property at Shantiniketan.
The single judge bench of Justice Bibhas Ranjan De asked the court of Birbhum district judge, where the stay application is now pending, to hear Sen's stay application on May 10 rather than May 15, as previously scheduled.
Justice Ranjan said, “Having heard the learned advocates, the learned District Judge, Birbhum is requested to hear the stay application on 10th May, 2023 at 2 P.M and till then the order of Joint Registrar Visva Bharati & Estate Officer should not be enforced or till the date of disposal of the stay application, whichever is later,"
Sen had filed a petition before the high court for interim relief after the university's Joint Registrar and Estate Officer issued an order asking him to leave 0.13 acres (5,500 square feet) of land at his ancestral home by May 6.
According to the report in Hindustan Times, the Vice Chancellor of Viswa Bharti University had claimed that Amartya Sen had possessed 1.38 acres of land on the Santiniketan campus. He further said that Sen’s father 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.
Sen also received three letters to this effect since January 24, as well as an eviction notice on March 17. During his stay in Santiniketan earlier this year, Sen did not respond to the letters and notices, nor did he presented himself in person for the hearings before the court.
On April 19, A K Mahato, Visva-Bharati's Joint Registrar and Estate Officer, issued the eviction order under the Public Premises (Eviction and Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971, stating that the university will take ownership of 13 decimals of land on the plot's north-west corner on May 6, 2023.
Case Title: Amartya Kumar Sen Vs Estate Officer and Joint Registrar, Visva Bharati and Ors
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