The Madras High Court has refused to issue a direction to Tindivanam District Registrar to cancel the registration of all land exchanges that had taken place between Auroville Foundation and third parties for formation of the Crown Road and consolidation of lands as per the vision laid down by the Mother’s charter.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh dismissed two writ petitions by Krishna Devanandan who claimed to be a member of the Residents Assembly, and accused the foundation’s Governing Board to have exchanged the lands without consulting the Working Committee (WC) and Funds and Assets Management Committee (FAMC).

The judge recorded the submission of senior counsel AR.L. Sundaresan, representing the foundation, that the WC as well as the FAMC were indeed consulted before resorting to land exchange and that the writ petitioner had not filed the present cases in representative capacity but only in her individual capacity.

Justice Venkatesh also took note that the Auroville Foundation Rules of 1997 require the prior sanction of the Centre only if a property worth more than ₹5 lakh had to be sold. Drawing a distinction between sale and exchange of lands, he said, the 1997 Rules had consciously used the word ‘sale’ alone.

Therefore, prior sanction of the government was required only for sale and not exchange, he held. The judge also took note that two members of the Governing Board were representatives of the Centre which had issued a checklist on November 6, 2023 for being followed while exchanging lands.

He recorded the submission of Mr. Sundaresan, assisted by Vaibhav R. Venkatesh, that neither the WC nor the FAMC had approached the court complaining about any kind of violation. The counsel told the court that the exchange of lands was necessary to adhere to the Auroville Master Plan.

They said, Auroville Foundation owns lands outside the designated 20 sq. km. area, which could be exchanged for the lands required for development within Auroville. The Governing Body had decided to exchange the lands in order to fulfil the objectives of the Master Plan and it had benefitted out of the transaction.

After carefully studying the sketch and finding that only lands outside the 20 sq. km. area had been exchanged, Justice Venkatesh said, if there was any serious complaint regarding the interests of the foundation having been compromised, the Centre itself would take action and provide remedy.

“The Central government, till date, has not even questioned the exchange of lands done by the first respondent (Auroville Foundation). Therefore, based on the ipse dixit of the petitioner, this court cannot look at the transactions like a doubting Thomas,” the judge concluded.