Supreme Court on Thursday put a stay on the Uttarakhand High Court’s directions that ordered the demolition of more than 4000 buildings built on Railway land in a Muslim-dominated settlement in Haldwani district.
Hearing a clutch of special leave petitions (SLPs), a bench comprising Justices SK Kaul and AS Oka said that a complete rehabilitation of the affected families is needed, and fixed the matter for the next hearing on February 7.
The court said that authorities need to find a “workable arrangement” to segregate owners who may have rights on their land. It issued a notice to the state government and the Railways.
“There should be a restraint on any more construction/development on the land,” the bench ordered.
During the hearing, the government counsel said that Haldwani works as the gateway to the hill state of Uttarakhand and the eviction was necessary for the state’s development.
“You need to find a practical way to solve this. This is not the way. There are multiple angles arising from the nature of the land, nature of rights conferred, nature of the ownership, etc,” observed Justice Kaul.
The court said that the Railway is permitted to take back the land and develop it, but sought a plan for rehabilitation of the affected families. “If so many people have stayed there for so long, some rehabilitation must be done for them,” the bench noted.
Justice Kaul said that the government must ensure their rehabilitation before their eviction, and asked the government to ensure no further encroachment or occupation of the Railway land.
“Someone will have to hear these people,” commented Justice Oka.
In their petitions, the residents have highlighted that they have been living in the settlement for more than 50 years. They argued that the Uttarakhand High Court ordered the eviction of thousands of people even though proceedings regarding the land titles were pending before the Haldwani district magistrate.
Thousands in Haldwani took a sigh of relief and offered prayers as the court stayed proceedings. Residents have been staging protests against the proposed eviction, which, they say, would render nearly 50,000 people homeless.
More than 4,300 houses, schools, temples, mosques, and business enterprises spread over an area of around 79 acres will be affected by the action ordered by the high court last year.
In its order, the Nainital high court said that the Railways is free to recover the cost spent on removing an illegal structure from the occupant.
“It will be open for the Railway authority, that in case if they are forced to utilise any force to demolish the structure and to take in possession the property of the Railways, unauthorisedly occupied by the encroachers, the cost, which is invested by them in removing the unauthorised occupants, would be recovered from them as an arrear of land revenue,” the order reads.
Authorities were planning to start the demolition drive on January 8 in the presence of a huge number of police and paramilitary personnel.