Photo Courtesy: Social media
New Delhi, Jan 5.
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed an Uttarakhand High Court order which had sought to evict and displace over 4,000 families from Haldwani.
The top court expressed its reservation on any move to overnight evict 50,000 people from the disputed land with the help of the para-military forces and asked the state and the Railway administration to set up a mechanism to examine their claims before evicting them.
The High Court had allowed the authorities to demolish the houses in the area and evict them in an order passed in Dec, 2022.
The Railways had claimed in the High Court that these people were encroachers on its land and would have to leave immediately so that work on rail widening could proceed.
The residents had claimed that they were staying in the area for well over 5 decades and could not be evicted overnight in peak winter. The top court prima facie backed their stand.
“You can’t tell people who have been staying there for over 70 years to clear off in 7 days,” Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said. He was sitting alongside Justice A.S. Oka. “Some rehabilitation will have to be offered,” Justice Kaul said.
Justice Kaul also cautioned the state against painting everybody with the same brush. “Some may have no rights. Others may,” he said. “You must verify claims of the occupants through some mechanism. There’s a human angle and you will have to work it out.”
“These are people who have in occupation for years. You can’t cut the process short,” he said. The nature of the land, the nature of ownership must be examined before any decision is taking. “We understand your need (for the land). But you must have a methodology.”
The bench also suggested that the Railways could always acquire the land by offering rehabilitation to the occupants elsewhere.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhatti contended that due process had been followed in this case under the existing laws. All proceedings have been initiated under the Public Premises Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants Act, 1971, she claimed.
The affected were represented in court by senior advocates Salman Khurshid, Colin Gonsalves, Siddharth Luthra and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
The bench also issued notices on the pleas against the High Court order and listed the case for a further hearing on Feb 7, 2023.
