Ajay Binay Institute of Technology in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, May 5: Orissa High Court today invalidated the state housing and urban development department’s direction to the development authority to regularise five acres of encroached land in favour of Ajay Binay Institute of Technology (ABIT).

The court ruled that the direction was not legal, taking into consideration the issue of public interest in protection of public property against illegal and unauthorised usurpation by a private body.

The additional chief secretary of the housing and urban development department had issued the direction as appellate authority on March 19 on the institute’s appeal.

“Delivering its judgment, the division bench of Chief Justice A.K. Goel and Justice A.K. Rath today set aside the March 19 order of the appellate authority and directed the development authority to refund the amount ABIT had deposited following it,” CDA counsel Dayananda Mohapatra said.

The institute, established in 1998, is affiliated to Biju Patnaik Institute of Technology (BPUT). In 1999, the Cuttack Development Authority allotted it five acres in sector I of Bidanasi Project area. An engineering college and a school of architecture came up on the land. But, the institute had encroached on more than seven acres in excess to the allotted area.

The authority had initiated steps for vacating the excess land. But, it filed an appeal before the appellate authority.

In its appeal, the institute pleaded for allotment of further area of seven acres. The appellate authority directed the development authority to give the institute five acres of the encroached area for Rs 15 crore. The order, however, directed ABIT to vacate the other two acres.

On March 20, the court took cognisance of the issue of encroachment of public land by ABIT from the affidavits filed in a PIL by the development authority. On April 10, it decided to consider the legality of the appellate authority’s order. Amicus Curiae Pravat Ranjan Dash argued that the order was not sustainable in the eye of law.

“The order clears the way for the CDA to take over possession of the additional five acres of land under ABIT’s possession by way of encroachment,” Mohapatra said.

Earlier, in an affidavit, CDA vice-chairman Pratap Chandra Dash had stated that on April 4, he along with land officer, legal officer and other employees had tried to take over possession of the five acres under forcible possession.

But, ABIT authorities “did not allow to take over possession” of the encroached land “in the absence of any specific direction of the high court”, Dash said.