Last April, the 90-year-old noted economist had approached the Birbhum district court after the Visva-Bharati issued him an eviction notice.
“All of a sudden, in January 2023, the Visva-Bharati university woke up and issued several notices (including a statutory notice) to the appellant (Amartya Sen). It is very surprising to note that the university which slumbered over the issue without taking any effective measures according to the law for 80 years, refused to give five months’ time to the appellant, who wanted the same to meet the queries as he was abroad. The said act of the university is against the rule of natural justice and violating of the maxim audi alterem partem,” the order of the Birbhum District Judge Sudeshna De (Chatterjee) stated.
“Therefore, the impugned notice dated 17.03.2023 as well as action taken by the respondents asking the appellant for showing cause and evicting him from 13 decimals of land under his occupation vide the order of respondent no.1 dated 19.04.2023 are found to be erroneous and not according to the law and thus, not legally sustainable and liable to be set aside,” the judge ordered.
Since 2022, the then vice-chancellor of Visva-Bharati university, Bidyut Chakrabarty, has been claiming that Sen has been illegally occupying 1.38 acre (5550 sq ft) of land on the Santiniketan campus. Chakrabarty alleged that Sen’s father, who was a professor at the university, had rented only 1.25 acre on a 99-year lease in 1943 and thus, the remaining land should be returned to the university.
The university sent three letters to Amartya Sen between January and March 2023. The final eviction notice was issued on March 17, 2023.
Visva-Bharati’s then 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.
In January 2023, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Sen and handed over a state land and revenue department record showing that all 1.38 acre covered by the property belonged to him through a mutation executed in 2006. The West Bengal government later transferred leasehold rights of the entire 1.38 acre to Sen to thwart any eviction attempt by the university authorities.
In May, the Calcutta High Court ordered an interim stay on the eviction order. The Bench of Justice Bibhas Ranjan De ruled that no action could be taken on it until the case is heard by the Birbhum district court.
“The court has accepted our prayer. We moved the court against the eviction order issued by the Visva-Bharati. The court has set aside the (eviction) order,” Sen’s lawyer Biman Chowdhury said.
No official of the Visva-Bharati university was available for comment.
Responding to the final eviction notice in April last year, Amartya Sen had asserted that the institution’s claim on a part of the leased land covered by his ancestral property on the campus had “no legal standing”.
In an email to Mahato, Sen wrote, “I am the holder of the land, and it was passed on to me after the death of my parents. They also purchased other land close to the leased land… The use of the land has remained the same over this long period (in fact 80 years). Any contrary claim to this leased land before the expiry of the lease cannot stand. The magistrate of the area has noted that the existing arrangement should be recognised and that no interference or breach of peace should be allowed.”