The Visva Bharati on Friday posted a notice on the boundary walls next to the entrance of Pratichi, the ancestral home of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in Santiniketan, providing the economist with an ultimatum to appear before the varsity authorities at 12 noon on 19 April for the disposal of proceedings on the disputed 13 decimal plot which the institution has accused Professor Sen of being an “alleged unauthorized occupant”.

The notice was served despite the court of the executive magistrate of Bolpur directing the police on Thursday to maintain status quo on the land of Pratichi after Sen sought legal protection amid apprehension that he might be dispossessed of the land in his absence by the university.

Friday’s order signed by AK Mahato, Joint Registrar of Visva Bharati and Estate Officer, directed the economist to be present at the conference room of the varsity’s central administrative building at the said date and time alongside the option of being represented by his lawyer or any other representative “for the disposal and passing of final order” on the disputed plot.

“As a last chance given to him”, Sen would have the opportunity of submitting a written statement by 6 pm on 18 April as reply to the show-cause notice served to him by Visva Bharati on why he shouldn’t be evicted from the disputed plot, the order read.

“The undersigned has conducted more than 100 such proceedings and several of the orders passed therein have been challenged before the appellate authority (Ld District Judge, Birbhum) and also the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court. As a matter of record, none of those orders has been set aside by the appellate authority or the Hon’ble High Court. Therfore, there is no support to the contention that this office does not follow the due process of law. The allegation, thus, is a false and fictitious pretext to invite extraneous intervention into this proceeding,” the order read.

“I, therefore, have come to the understanding that the alleged unauthorized occupant does not want to face this inquiry; rather he wants to subvert or bypass this proceeding by other means including initiating proceedings at other forum,” it added.

“Based on the facts aforesaid, I decide that no further opportunity of showing cause or attending personal hearing shall be allowed to the alleged unauthorized occupant,” the order concluded.

Sen, currently abroad, has left his property to an acquaintance Gitikantha Majumdar to take care of in his absence. "We sent three letters to Visva-Bharati seeking time for the legal process to begin as Professor Sen will be back in his Santiniketan home only in June this year. We moved court after Visva-Bharati told us it would not wait till June and gave the April 13 deadline to appear before the team," Majumdar had earlier said.

The Friday notice prima facie appeared to be in sharp contrast to the Thursday court order which stated: "The order will prevent Visva-Bharati from taking any stretch of Pratichi land into their possession until the case is disposed of in court. The status quo will prevail on the plot of Pratichi till June 6 when the case will be heard again in the presence of representatives of both Sen and Visva-Bharati. The police also have been asked to maintain peace and tranquility over the land."

The Visva Bharati notice, on the other hand, justifies its ultimatum. “My notice dated 17 March clearly states that the alleged unauthorized occupant can appear in hearing through a duly authorized representative. Indeed the alleged unauthorized occupant has authorized two Ld advocates to deal with the matter and they have submitted three representations so far, seeking time, but have not submitted any written statement showing causes and have not bothered to appear in any of the two hearings scheduled on 29 March and 13 April,” the joint registrar’s order, a copy of which was also sent to Sen’s Santiniketan address by courier, read.

Visva-Bharati had in January sent three letters to Sen asking him to hand over the 13 decimals (0.13 acres) that it claimed he was occupying illegally in addition to 125 decimals (1.25 acres) leased to his family.

Sen had denied any unauthorized occupation of land.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in January handed over land-related documents to Sen in Santiniketan that made it clear that the plot leased to his father Ashutosh Sen measured 1.38 acres and not 1.25 acres.

Based on the papers, the state government transferred the leasehold rights of 1.38 acres of Pratichi in Santiniketan in the economist's name on 20 March.