New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday, August 4, asked the Haryana government to expedite the rehabilitation process of those evicted during demolitions at Khori Gaon.
LiveLaw has reported that a division bench of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari asked the state government to consider the draft policy of rehabilitation submitted by the Faridabad Municipal Corporation and take a conclusive decision before the date of the next hearing, August 25.
The bench also asked the Faridabad Commissioner to submit a status report after the removal of unauthorised structures, and indicated representations for rehabilitations it has received and resolved, before August 25.
On June 7, Supreme Court reiterated its order of February and April 2020 to evict residents of the Khori Gaon basti on the Delhi-Haryana border. Cases pertaining to this land were being heard in the higher courts for the last decade.
Also read: Why the Haryana Govt Must Not Evict One Lakh Residents of Khori Gaon
The apex court had ruled that the residences at Khori Gaon were an encroachment on the Aravalli forest land. It had ordered the municipal corporation to undertake evictions using force if needed. As a result, more than 6,500 houses of over one lakh residents were demolished amidst heavy police presence amidst the pandemic.
Compounding the problems of the residents, as Manju Menon and Ishita Chatterjee had noted for The Wire, was the fact that while the land of Khori Gaon officially belongs to the government, residents had been sold little parcels of land by dubious land dealers through power of attorney documents.
The court asked the Commissioner to also consider establishing an office at the complex where evicted residents have been temporarily put up, so that they can avail themselves of facilities made available to them by the court.
When senior advocate Colin Gonsalves argued on behalf of the petitioners that rehabilitation is hardly being done by the state, the Supreme Court, however, orally observed that “those who are not eligible to get accommodation” according to a new policy cannot be rehabilitated.
LiveLaw quoted the bench as having said, “Those who are eligible, who are likely to get accommodation as per new policy, they have right to be rehabilitated and must be considered, we can understand that. But those who are not eligible why should they be rehabilitated by state? They are all encroachers and land grabbers.”
In her ground reports from Khori Gaon, The Wire‘s Naomi Barton had observed that for residents of the area – who comprise Delhi’s working class – the Supreme Court’s order was regarded as one that was distinctly “anti-poor”. Several residents likened it to a death sentence.
Also read: ‘An Order Against the Poor’: Thousands Now Homeless After Khori Gaon Demolition
The bench also observed, according to the report, that the state government “has said that it can provide rehabilitation to those who contact them for the same, and cannot go after every person to rehabilitate.”
Another senior advocate, Sanjay Parikh, speaking on behalf of another petitioner, told the apex court that the state’s temporary shelters at Radha Saomi and Red Cross centres were low in capacity. The former is in forest area and has no provision for food and water, Parikh said, according to LiveLaw.
Senior advocate Arun Bhardwaj, for the Faridabad Municipal Corporation, however, opposed the contention and said that “Radha Saomi and Red Cross are adjacent to Khori Gaon and are not in the forest area.”
The court objected to the apparent discrepancy in the lawyers’ submissions and when advocate Srishti Agnihotri pointed to an NGT report which identifies the Radha Saomi land as forest, the court said, “If its forest land, it has to go.”
As Gonsalves argued that farm houses need to be demolished as well, the division bench repeated that all unauthorised structures on forest land had to go.