New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (July 24) instructed the Centre and the Uttarakhand government to develop comprehensive rehabilitation plan for the more than 50,000 residents who are facing eviction from land that is claimed by the railways.
A bench led by Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan expressed strong reservations about the approach taken by the authorities, reported Hindustan Times.
The bench also questioned the use of public interest litigation (PIL) as a method for ordering evictions.
“Why a PIL for eviction? You can proceed under the PP Act. You issue notice and proceed in terms of the law. Is it that you acted under the guise of a PIL? You rode on the back of a PIL and got an order. You didn’t issue a notice on your own. You can’t use a PIL to get it done… Why this via media of a PIL and get this done?” said the bench, reported Hindustan Times.
“We are dealing with human beings here. Ultimately, the high court cannot decide in a writ jurisdiction that a family has no claims. Some reasonable opportunity had to be given to those who were claiming some titles… Even assuming they are encroachers, they are all human beings. They have been there for decades,” the court observed.
A division bench of the Uttarakhand high court led by Sharat Kumar Sharma had on December 20, 2022, granted seven days to remove the families from the Banbhoolpura region.
Over 4,000 families residing in the area near the Haldwani railway station thus faced eviction, despite claiming that they have been living on the land near the railway lines for over 40 years now. Reports said that government schools also came up on this land.
Amidst protests, some of the residents had approached the Supreme Court for relief. The Supreme Court had stayed the Uttarakhand High Court order in January 2023.
The bench directed the Centre and the state to present a rehabilitation plan within four weeks, emphasising on the need for a fair and balanced approach.
The matter will be next heard on September 11.
