Cuttack: The Orissa High Court today asked Industrialist Anil Agarwal-controlled Vedanta Group to submit a reply in land acquisition case within eight weeks.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice of the High Court, Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice Savitri Ratho sought the reply from Vedanta Group while hearing a petition filed by farmers’ group Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan. The High Court has fixed the next date of hearing after eight weeks.

In 2006, Vedanta Group acquired 10,000 acres of land to set up a world-class university along Puri-Konark marine drive. Terming the land acquisition as illegal, the Supreme Court, in 2023, denied permission to Vedanta for the university project.

As since then Vedanta has not returned the acquired land to the Odisha Government, farmers with the help of Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan knocked the doors of the High Court.