Calcutta HC stays move to take away part of Amartya Sen's Shantiniketan land

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday gave an interim stay against a move by Visva Bharati to take away a part of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's property Pratichi at Shantiniketan.

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen moved the Calcutta High Court, seeking relief as the university had passed an order directing the petitioner to vacate 0.13 acres (5,500 sq ft) of land at his ancestral Santiniketan residence by May 6, even as an appeal for a stay on possible eviction was fixed for hearing on May 15, 2023 at a court in Suri in Birbhum district of West Bengal.

The central varsity, which claimed that the land is under the "illegal occupation" of Sen, had said that it would evict the economist if he failed to vacate it within the deadline.

The matter was heard by a bench of Justice Bibhas Ranjan De at the High Court.

It gave an interim stay in the matter till it is heard before a lower court in Birbhum district.

In his petition, the economist argued that in October 1943, the then Visva-Bharati general secretary Rathindranath Tagore had given 1.38 acre of land for a lease of 99 years to his father Ashutosh Sen, who later built 'Pratichi'.

Sen had earlier moved a court in Suri against the eviction notice, but the court set May 15 as the date of hearing, well after the university's deadline to vacate the land.