Calcutta HC puts Visva-Bharati order about Amartya Sen’s land on hold

Kolkata: The Calcutta high court on Thursday ordered an interim stay on an eviction order by Visva-Bharati, West Bengal’s only central university, for Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to vacate 13 decimal of 1.38 acre of land on the campus he has been allegedly occupying in an unauthorised manner.

‘Pratichi’, Sen’s home, stands on the sprawling campus at Bolpur in the state’s Birbhum district. The varsity on April 19 ordered Sen to vacate the concerned area by May 6.

While the 89-year-old economist moved the Birbhum district court at Siuri town on April 27, the matter was listed for hearing on May 15, prompting him to move the high court for a stay on the eviction order.

While hearing the matter, Justice Bibhas Ranjan De said the eviction order should not be enforced till the stay application filed by the petitioner is heard by the Birbhum district court on May 10.

“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 and estate officer should not be enforced or till the date of disposal of the stay application, whichever is later,” the high court order, seen by HT, said.

Birbhum-based lawyer Gorachand Chakraborty, who is representing Sen, said: “Our petition was listed for hearing for May 15 . The stay petition was moved before the high court by senior lawyer Jayanta Kumar Mitra since Visva-Bharati wanted to occupy the land on May 6.”

No Visva-Bharati official commented on the high court order till Thursday evening.

Since 2022, vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty has been claiming that Sen is in possession of 1.38 acre 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 and an eviction notice on March 17. Sen neither replied to the letters and notice nor appeared in person for the hearings during his stay at Santiniketan earlier this year. He did not move court and sent his lawyers for the university hearings. He returned to the United States in February.

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.

On January 30, 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.