JOGEN CHOWDHURY Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ petition has been filed in order to preserve and protect Shantiniketan established by Rabindra Nath Tagore, great poet, storywriter, educationist and Nobel laureate complaining of the violation of the directions issued by the Hon'ble Supreme court in the case of Susanta Tagore v. The Union of India & Ors., 2005 3 SCC 16. Prayer has been made to rescind, recall, revoke and/or withdraw the decision to allow the construction of building on 'Khoai' land at Shantiniketan by Respondent No. 6, M/s. Aarsuday Projects & Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. and to demolish the construction raised in an illegal manner.

(2.) It is averred in the petition that collusive and/or surreptitious acts of some of the respondents herein have resulted in widespread destruction of 'Khoai' land created by the natural process of running rain water for millennia which is a rare geological phenomenon, and which, if destroyed, cannot be restored even with the help of science and thus requires preservation.

(3.) Sriniketan Santiniketan Development Authority (hereinafter referred to as 'S.S.D.A') was constituted under the West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) Act, 1979 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act of 1979'). The planning area as declared by the State Government in exercise of power under section 9(1) of the Act of 1979 included the whole of Santiniketan. S.S.D.A. prepared a Land Use Map under section 28 of the Act of 1979 and invited objections from the public at large. Various members of the public had pointed out myriad anomalies in the Map and made a number of concrete suggestions to preserve the environs of Santiniketan.