Lavasa wins case against London's The Times

Lavasa Corporation has won £30,000 compensation from The Times Newspapers of London, after the newspaper accepted it had carried an article with incorrect information.

The out-of-court settlement was reached in front of the Royal Courts of Justice on November 17, after the Times agreed to publish a correction to its first article that was headlined as ‘Oxford dragged into Indian land-grab row,’ a statement from Lavasa Corporation here today.

The Sunday Times had reported the company had cut down millions of trees, benefited from the fraudulent land procurement and used armed employees to force farmers in the area to sell their land while constructing the Lavasa city. Lavasa Corp, an arm of leading construction firm Hindustan Construction Company, said it would be receiving the payment towards legal fees.

It added the proceeds would be donated to the Christel House School, Lavasa, which provides education to the poor children from villages around Lavasa, near Pune.

Christel House Lavasa was jointly started with Christel House India and Lavasa Corp to provide education to the underprivileged kids from villages around Lavasa. The school was formally inaugurated last week by school founder Christel DeHaan, though it has been functioning from July this year. Meanwhile, Lavasa has received Sebi's nod for its Rs 2,000 crore IPO yesterday.