New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Tuesday said encroachers of railway land in Haldwani in Uttarakhand do not have a vested legal right to be there, indicating that over 5,000 families will have to vacate the disputed land for the proposed expansion project.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi noted that the dispute over the land has traversed different courts and observed that the stalemate over encroached railway land cannot be allowed to continue endlessly.
It directed the Centre and the state authorities to ascertain the eligibility of families residing in the area for Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana .
The top court directed the Nainital collector, Haldwani sub-division officer and other officials including members of the district-level legal service authority to visit the area and set up a camp to assist the families occupying the land to fill the forms and formalities for taking benefit of the scheme.
The bench said the court will appreciate if the applications by eligible families for the PMAY scheme are filled by March 31.
The bench directed the collector and the secretary of the state legal service authority to file a status report.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioners who are residents of the area, submitted that they have been staying in the area which falls in and around the Haldwani railway station for over four to five decades.
He said that the state government had earlier said that they would regularise the area but nothing was done.
Justice Bagchi said, “It is a public land or to say it is railway land, a fact which is not in dispute. You are actually getting a concession for being there.
“You cannot claim it as a right to be there. You are getting a concession because the authorities slept over the illegalities for years.”
Bhushan said that for the expansion project not all land was required and the railways can take only whatever was required or shift the project.
CJI Kant said that the court cannot ask the railways to shift the project as it is for the experts to do so.
Senior advocate Collin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioners, said there are several religious places in the area and people need resettlement before being displaced.
CJI Kant told Gonsalves, “Have mercy on these people. They are residing in unhygienic conditions where there is no potable drinking water, electricity and sewage arrangement. Let them decide if they want a house under the PMAY scheme and if there are any impediments, the court will take care of it.”
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, said that an expansion project was needed for the railways as hills start from Haldwani upwards.
She submitted that river water entered the tracks earlier and caused damage to the railway infrastructure.
Bhati added that the displaced eligible families can be given houses under the PMAY scheme either in Uttarakhand or in Uttar Pradesh and, if needed, ₹2,000 per month for six months can be given to them.
She added that 13 residents of the area have freehold land and the state will be acquiring those pieces of land.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing in April.
On July 24, 2024, the top court directed the Uttarakhand chief secretary to hold a meeting with the Centre and the Railways to rehabilitate over 50,000 people who have encroached railway land in Haldwani.
In 2024, the Railways moved the apex court seeking vacation of the apex court’s January 5, 2023 order which stayed the Uttarakhand High Court order for removal of encroachments from 29 acres of land claimed by the Railways in Haldwani.
The plea submitted that a strip of the land be made available on an urgent basis to facilitate the railway operations as a retaining wall protecting the tracks fell down during the monsoon season of 2023.
The top court said the state government will have to provide a scheme as to how and where these people will be rehabilitated.
It directed the state government to identify the strip of land required for the upgradation of infrastructure and for the shifting of the railway line without any delay along with the identification of families likely to be affected due to eviction.
According to the Railways, there are 4,365 encroachers on the land, while the occupants are holding protests in Haldwani asserting that they are its rightful owners.
Nearly 50,000 people, a majority of them Muslims, belonging to over 4,000 families reside on the disputed land.
The top court on January 5, 2023 had stayed the Uttarakhand High Court order for removal of encroachments from 29 acres of land claimed by the Railways in Haldwani, terming it a “human issue” and saying 50,000 people cannot be uprooted overnight.
In its December 20, 2023 order, the high court had said, “The railway authorities in coordination with the district administration, and if need be, with any other para-military forces, shall immediately, after giving a week’s notice to the occupants over the railway land, ask them to vacate the land within the aforesaid period.”
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
