Supreme Court halts eviction of SASTRA University from Thanjavur campus

The Supreme Court on Thursday halted the Madras High Court’s order directing the eviction of Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA) from government land in Thanjavur. [SASTRA University v. State of Tamil Nadu]

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vijay Bishnoi observed that the State should not treat the issue as a prestige matter. It noted that a welfare State must take into account the role of educational institutions performing a public function.

The Court observed that while encroachment on public land cannot be encouraged, the present case involved a public educational institution and not a commercial enterprise. The Bench noted that the land had been utilised for decades by a university performing a public function and remarked that States must be sensitive in dealing with such institutions.

It thus directed SASTRA to submit a detailed representation and directed the State to consider it in four weeks. It also held that SASTRA can function in the current premises for now.

SASTRA approached the Supreme Court challenging a Madras High Court judgment dated January 9, 2026, which upheld the State government’s decision rejecting SASTRA’s request for assignment or exchange of government land and directing its eviction from the land in question.

The dispute relates to 31.37 acres of government land that is interspersed with and contiguous to SASTRA’s own patta land, forming part of an integrated university campus with academic buildings, hostels, access roads and utilities.

In its Special Leave Petition (SLP), SASTRA stated that enforcement of the High Court judgment would severely disrupt the functioning of the University and affect over 12,000 students currently enrolled across disciplines including law, engineering, sciences, management and liberal arts.

The litigation traces back to earlier proceedings that culminated in a Supreme Court order dated September 14, 2018, in which an SLP filed by SASTRA was dismissed, but liberty was granted to the University to submit representations to the State authorities.

Following this, SASTRA submitted multiple representations between 2018 and 2021, including proposals offering exchange of alternative land parcels. The Tamil Nadu government constituted a committee, but later rejected the representations in 2022. This was followed by an eviction notice dated February 25, 2022, prompting SASTRA to file writ petitions before the Madras High Court.

While the writ petitions were pending, the High Court passed interim orders on August 8, 2022 and September 6, 2022, noting that the hostels and classrooms were operating on disputed land. The Court placed the land under its control until final adjudication, clarified that students and their studies would not be affected, restrained further construction and made continued use subject to the outcome of the case.

On January 9, 2026, the High Court dismissed the writ petitions, upheld the State’s rejection of SASTRA’s representations and directed implementation of the eviction notice within four weeks. The SLP states that officials subsequently entered the campus the next day to assert control over parts of the land.

A key issue raised by SASTRA is the State’s position that the land was earmarked for an open-air prison, which the University says was asserted without any formal notification or statutory declaration.

SASTRA also relied on the State’s land-exchange policy, which provides a framework for exchange of government land with educational institutions. The University claims it offered multiple alternative parcels, including land larger than the disputed extent.

SASTRA was represented by Senior Advocates CS Vaidyanathan and Mukul Rohatgi.

Tamil Nadu was represented by Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi