Court rules eviction order for Amartya Sen illegal
On Wednesday, the Birbhum district court in Bengal delivered a verdict in favour of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, stating that the eviction order issued by Visva-Bharati University in April 2023 was illegal.
The university had accused Sen of occupying 13 decimals of the 1.38 acres of leased land on the Santiniketan campus, where his ancestral bungalow Pratichi stands, unlawfully.
According to Gorachand Chakraborty, Sen’s lawyer, District Judge Sudeshna Dey Chatterjee declared that Visva-Bharati University lacked the authority to issue the eviction order as the law cited by it was not applicable at the time when Sen’s father, Ashutosh Sen, leased the land from the university authorities in 1943.
The university also could not provide any documentation related to the lease agreement from 1943, said Chakraborty.
Sen, who spends much of his time in USA, was not present in court.
In 2022, the then vice-chancellor of Visva-Bharati, Bidyut Chakrabarty, had stirred controversy by claiming that Ashutosh Sen had leased only 1.25 acres for 99 years in 1943, and not 1.38 acres, and therefore, 13 decimals was being occupied illegally.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee provided Sen with a state Land and Revenue Department record in January 2023, demonstrating his ownership of the entire 1.38 acres through a mutation executed in 2006.
Despite this evidence, Visva-Bharati proceeded with the eviction process, leading to a political dispute in Bengal, with the Trinamool Congress alleging victimisation of Sen for criticising certain Union government policies. Visva-Bharati University is a Central university with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chancellor.
No official statement from Visva-Bharati was issued regarding the district court’s decision as of Wednesday afternoon.
