Visva-Bharati on Friday issued a show-cause notice to Amartya Sen asking him to explain why an eviction order should not be passed against him in connection with its allegation that he is occupying 13 decimals of land in Santiniketan without authorisation.
The notice asks the economist to appear, or authorise a person to appear on his behalf, before the university estate officer for a hearing on March 29.
Some campus sources and legal experts said the notice was an attempt to “harass” the economist by entangling him in a legal battle despite the state government confirming that the Sen family was not occupying any land without authorisation. Sen, who is in the US, was expected to visit his Santiniketan home, Pratichi, in July.
“We will discuss this with Prof. Sen and his advocates before answering the letter or appearing before the hearing,” a source close to Sen’s family in Santiniketan said. Visva-Bharati had in January sent three letters to Sen asking him to hand over the 13 decimals (0.13 acres) that it said he was occupying without authorisation in addition to 125 decimals (1.25 acres) leased to his family. Sen has denied unauthorised occupation of any land.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited Sen’s home in January and handed over land-related documents to him. The documents make it clear that the plot leased to the economist’s father, Ashutosh Sen, was 1.38 acres and not 1.25 acres. Officials say the state government has provisionally transferred the leasehold to Sen as the legal heir to his father but this has not yet been updated in the records as Visva-Bharati has raised an objection before the land department.
A senior Visva-Bharati official handling the legal process said: “The notice to Sen has been served under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Rules, 1971, which allows the central government or its organisations to evict unauthorised occupants from public land. “He (Sen) has to answer the show-cause notice in writing on or before March 24. The notice is the first step before evicting him from the 13-decimal plot.” The official said that if Sen failed to prove he was occupying the 13 decimals legally, he would be given around a fortnight to vacate it. If he failed to do so, the university would take possession of the 13-decimal land with the help of police and campus security.
“If Sen is not satisfied with our decision, he can approach the district judge of Birbhum, who is the appellate authority for this rule,” the official said. “He could approach Calcutta High Court, too. In short, he has to go in for a legal battle now to prove he is not an encroacher.” A senior university teacher said: “Visva-Bharati authorities have realised that the land records will not permit them to persecute Sen any more. So, for the time being, they are using the anti-encroachment law relating to central government institutions to harass him.” Samim Ahammed, a Calcutta High Court lawyer who has fought cases against Visva-Bharati, said it would be very difficult for the university to prove that Sen is an encroacher.
Sources suggested that the university had realised it would not be easy to evict Sen from the 13-decimal land but wanted to “keep the issue alive” to please the central government as the Nobel laureate “is a powerful critic of the Narendra Modi government”. A state government official said the idea was “to mount pressure on the octogenarian and tarnish his image”. The two-page notice served to Sen carries the signature of Visva-Bharati estate officer Ashok Mahato. “In the letter, Visva-Bharati claims that Sen has not answered its letters. But his advocate had written to the university authorities asking them to apologise for the false allegation against Sen (of occupying land illegally),” the source close to the Sen family said.
