The Supreme Court on Thursday (January 5) issued a stay order on the removal of encroachments from 29 acres of railway land in Haldwani, Uttarakhand.
The apex court said that 50,000 people cannot be uprooted overnight and that a scheme has to be worked out for rehabilitation and working out the rights of the various people while also considering need of the railways.
The SC posted the case for hearing on February 7.
The residents had submitted in their pleas that the High Court has erred in passing the order despite being aware of the fact that proceedings with regard to the title of the residents, including the petitioners, are pending before the District Magistrate, reported PTI.
According to the railways, there are 4,365 encroachers on the land.
What the SC said: The court said that the moot point to be considered would be whether complete land is to vest in railways or if state is claiming part of the land.
What is the case? The Uttarakhand HC, on December 20, ordered the demolition of constructions over encroached railway land at Banbhoolpura in Haldwani, Nainital. The HC told the authorities to give a week's notice to the encroachers, and after that, the encroachments should be demolished.
What are the petitioners saying? According to the petition, people have been staying in Haldwani's Mohalla Nai Basti for years and the court's eviction order to over 20,000 people came in at a time when the titles of the residents are pending before the district magistrate.
Women in #Haldwani Uttarakhand are peacefully protesting the order to demolish over 4500 homes, mostly belonging to Muslims, on the pretext of “removing encroachments on railway land”.The evictions will displace more than 50000 people leaving them homelesspic.twitter.com/zf1dXlyA54
— Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitrav) January 3, 2023
The issue over eviction notices: According to a statement by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, the railway has served eviction notices to people living in 78 acres of land while the land in dispute was 29 acres, reported India Today. It also said that the high court's order is going to affect more than 50,000 people living in the area.
#Haldwani | Life has come to full stop as the High Court orders to demolish 4000 'illegal houses' from Railway land | Locals hit the street, knock Supreme Court's door@PoulomiMSaha @tweets_amit #Nanital #ITVideo pic.twitter.com/s8XWHPdvsv
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) January 5, 2023
Politics over the issue: The opposition parties have come out in support of the protesting residents. "They have been living in the area for 70 years. There is a mosque, temple, overhead water tank, a PHC, a sewer line laid in 1970, two inter-colleges, and a primary school," Congress leader Qazi Nizamuddin said.