<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p>The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Orissa government to maintain status quo on acquisition of 6,000 hectares of land for setting up an international university by UK-based Vedanta group in the holy city of Puri.<br><br>Admitting a bunch of cross-appeals, a bench of justices D K Jain and H L Dattu asked the state government to maintain status quo on the process to acquire the land.<br><br>Earlier, two different benches of the apex court had refused to hear the cross-appeals saying that one or the other judges had been linked to the adjudication of the issue before.<br><br>The state government and the Anil Agarwal Foundation, which promotes the project, appealed against a decision of the Orissa High Court which citing 17 reasons held that land acquisition procedures for the proposed Vedanta University project were illegal.<br><br>The high court had also directed Vedanta to return the land to its various owners.<br><br>Appearing for one of over half a dozen petitioners against the project, counsel Prashant Bhushan contended that the state government began acquiring land for setting up of a world class university by a group, which does not have the experience of establishing even a primary school.<br><br>He also contended that Land Acquisition Company Rules, 1963, had not been properly followed by the state government.<br><br>The high court had given its verdict on two public interst lawsuits and six individual petitions, challenging the state government's notification on the land acquisition procedures.<br><br>Another petitioner opposing the project contended that the proposed multi-disciplinary university project would cause extreme debilitating impact on the eco system as well as the local bio-diversity.<br><br>Yet another petitioner, who is opposing the project is Congress leader Umaballav Rath. He had earlier filed a PIL in the high court challenging the varsity project on the ground that it was envisaged on 500 acres of the temple land.<br><br>The petitioners also pointed out that the proposed site for the university was close to Balukhand Konark Black Buck Sanctuary and a river.<br><br>The petitioners had also questioned the status of the company saying it was not properly formed as per the Company's Act.<br><br>The status quo was ordered by the bench of justices of Jain and Dattu. Earlier, an apex court bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly recused itself from adjudicating the issue on January 21.<br><br>Nearly a fortnight before that on January 5, another bench of justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik withdrew from the case.<br><br>The bench of justices Singhvi and Ganguly withdrew from the case as Justice Ganguly had dealt with it earlier as the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court.<br><br>The bench of justices Raveendran and Patnaik refused to hear the issue to avoid any conflict of interest as Justice Patnaik hailed from Orissa.<br><br>(PTI)</p>