‘50,000 people cannot be uprooted in 7 days’, SC stays mass eviction
The Uttarakhand High Court’s order to bulldoze thousands of houses of Haldwani residents on the land claimed by Railways was stayed by the Supreme Court on Thursday. The SC stays mass eviction on the basis for the issuing of eviction notices to over 4000 families who assert that they have lived in the area for years based on legal documents accepted by the government.
The Supreme Court overturned the Uttarakhand High Court’s order on Thursday to immediately evict residents of land in Haldwani that the railways had claimed, stating that such residents could not be uprooted overnight and that some rehabilitation programme was required for those asserting legal rights to the property.
According to locals’ claim, there are 25,000 voters in the 78-acre region, including 15,000 children, several older people, and pregnant women.
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The judgment was made by a bench made up of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S. Oka in response to a group of special leave petitions filed in opposition to the decision rendered by a division bench of the High Court on December 20, 2022.
The Court asked the State and the Railways to come up with a “practical solution” and set the matter for February 7, 2023.
The Supreme Court said there will be no construction on that land. Rehabilitation scheme to be kept in mind. There are schools, colleges and other solid structures that cannot be demolished like this: Lubna Naaz, advocate of the petitioner https://t.co/Byv8jGOnsh pic.twitter.com/K6rKcywG9u
— ANI (@ANI) January 5, 2023
However, the Court acknowledged that there might be cases where individuals bought land there through an auction or another type of purchase.
“There are two aspects of the issue. One, they claim leases. Two, they say people migrated after 1947 and the lands were auctioned. People stayed there for so many years. Some rehabilitation has to be given. There are establishments there. How can you say in seven days clear them off?” Justice S. K. Kaul asked.
Augmenting Justice Oka, Justice Kaul said, “The human issue arises from long periods of occupation. Maybe all of them cannot be painted with the same brush. Maybe there are different categories. But the individual cases have to be examined. Somebody will have to verify the documents”.
Aishwarya Bhati, who spoke on behalf of the railways, asserted that it had already been completed. The matter won’t be resolved overnight, and the proper procedures were followed.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra also asserted that many petitioners had government leases executed in favour of them. Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid stated that many properties were in “nazul” lands,
“Whether the complete land is to vest in the railways or whether the state government is claiming a part of the land, apart from that, there are issues of occupants alleging rights in the land as lessees/auction purchasers. We are on the way. The order has been passed as there cannot be uprooting 50,000 people in 7 days.
We do believe that a workable arrangement is necessary to segregate people who may have no rights in the land who will have to be removed, coupled with schemes of rehabilitation which may already exist while recognizing the need of the railways,” a bench of Justices S. K. Kaul and A. S. Oka said after hearing petitions challenging the high court order.
The petition highlights that the petitioners are low-income individuals who have lived in Haldwani district’s Mohalla Nai Basti for more than 70 years as legal residents. According to the petitioner, even though district magistrate procedures regarding the residents’ titles were still pending, the Uttarakhand High Court ordered the summary eviction of more than 20,000 persons living in more than 4000 homes.
