The Supreme Court on Thursday put on hold the Uttarakhand High Court’s order to evict over 4,000 families in Haldwani from land claimed by the Indian Railways.
“There cannot be uprooting of 50,000 people overnight. There has to be segregation of people who have no right on the land and the need to rehabilitation while recognising the need of railways,” the Supreme Court stated.
A bench of Justices S K Kaul and A S Oka observed that it is a “human issue” and some workable solution needs to be found. The top court has posted the matter for further hearing on February 7.
On December 20 last year, the High Court bench of Justice R C Khulbe and Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma directed the Railways “to use the forces to any extent determining upon need, to evict forthwith the unauthorised occupants after giving them a week’s time to vacate the premises”.
The 176-page HC ruling, commenting on the state’s earlier intervention, noted: “Owing to the certain most reckoned political shield, which was then being provided by the then ruling party for its political gains to the unauthorised occupants, just to secure its vote bank, the State itself has filed a Review Petition, for no subsisting and valid reasons… seeking review of the judgment dated 9th November, 2016, which too was dismissed by the Division Bench vide its judgment dated 10th January, 2017…”
Dismissing the claim by residents that the 1907 record established the area as nazul land, the HC said the document is only “an official communication, it will not have a statutory force”.
In 2022, the petitioner filed a new plea that illegal occupants be evicted under Section 147 of the Railways Act which deals with trespass and refusal to desist from trespass. The court issued a general notice that those who want to say something can do that through intervention applications. A total of 10 intervention applications were filed and, after rejecting them, the court passed a final order on December 20
