[ad_1]
A child prays as she sits along with women and other children during a dharna ahead of the Supreme Court order on the plea opposing their imminent eviction, in Haldwani on January 5, 2022.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a December 20 direction of the Uttarakhand High Court to Railways and the district administration to use paramilitary forces to evict thousands of poor families occupying railway land in Haldwani district within a week.
A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and A. S. Oka remarked that some of these people have been living on the land for 50 to 70 years and cannot be evicted within a week.
The court said the issue has a “human angle”. Many proceedings under the Public Premises Act were instituted ex parte against the families during COVID time. A balance has to be struck between railways’ need to develop the land and the families right to live with dignity. The rights of the families on the land have to be examined. Even those who have no rights, but living there for years, need to be rehabilitated.
“They cannot be uprooted overnight from the land… Somebody has to go into the need for rehabilitation while recognising the need of the railways,” Justice Kaul said.
“And it was not right to order bringing in paramilitary forces,” Justice Oka remarked.
Need to open State to more rail traffic: Railways
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, for the Railways, said the land around Kathgodam railway station cannot be developed and there is a need to open the State to more rail traffic. Haldwani was the nearest. The land belonged to the Railways. Ms. Bhati said the people have never claimed their right to rehabilitation, instead they have claimed right over the land itself.
Senior advocates Colin Gonsalves, Siddharth Luthra, Salman Khurshid and advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the various affected families, said over 5,000 families are affected. Proceedings against Public Premises Act against them were still on. The High Court order had come out of the blue and was ex parte. They were not given a reasonable opportunity to be heard. Children, women and elderly persons among them now face the prospect of being evicted from their homes at the dead of winter in the biting cold.
“These people are not just encroachers… There are multiple issues involved here. They cannot be evicted within the week,” Justice Kaul remarked.
The court issued notice to the Uttarakhand government while putting a complete stop on the eviction. It listed the case on February 7.
Residents protest
Thousands of residents of Banbhoolpura in Haldwani who faced the threat of eviction sat on dharna in front of a mosque in Dehradun on January 5, ahead of the Supreme Court verdict. The protesters, including a sizable number of women and children, also offered prayers collectively.
The residents claimed that they had the relevant documents and expressed hope that the apex court would consider the fact that they had been living on the land for 100 years
(With inputs from PTI).
[ad_2]
Source link