Overview
- The stay pauses the Madras High Court’s January 9 directive to evict the university from 31.37 acres of government land in Thanjavur allotted to the Prison Department.
- Tamil Nadu must constitute a high-powered committee of three senior officials to consider the university’s representation within four weeks.
- The bench directed that SASTRA’s campus operations not be hindered during the review period.
- The court said encroachment of public land cannot be encouraged but urged a sensitive approach to a public educational institution.
- SASTRA contends eviction would severely disrupt more than 12,000 students and says the disputed tract is interspersed with its own patta land.