The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that its order
staying the Uttarakhand High Court directions for the removal of encroachments
from 29 acres of land claimed by the railways in Haldwani will continue during
the pendency of petitions in the matter before it.
On January 5, the apex court had in an interim order
stayed the high court's directions for the removal of encroachments from 29
acres of land, terming it a "human issue" and saying 50,000 people
cannot be uprooted overnight.
The pleas challenging the high court order came up
for hearing before a bench comprising Justices S K Kaul and A Amanullah which
said that the interim order of stay "is made absolute during the pendency
of the petitions" and listed the matter for directions in the first week
of August.
According to the railways, there are 4,365
encroachers on the land. The occupants were earlier staging protests in
Haldwani, asserting that they were the rightful owners of the land. Nearly
50,000 people, a majority of them Muslims, belonging to over 4,000 families
reside on the disputed land.
The apex court was on Tuesday informed that an
adjournment letter has been circulated in the matter.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for one of the
petitioners, said this matter needs to be heard and decided and the bench can
fix it for hearing in July.
"You have got the protection in this matter. It
is not an easy solution to find out, looking at the problem. But the solution
was not which the high court found," the bench observed, adding it had
already stayed the high court directions.
"We had recorded the reasons why we were
staying that order," it said.
The bench then asked the lawyers appearing for the
railways as well as the state about how much time they will take to find a solution.
It noted in its order that the state's counsel has
submitted that the endeavour is on to work out a reasonable solution as early
as possible.
"An adjournment letter has been circulated...
The interim order is made absolute during the pendency of the petitions,"
the bench said, while listing the matter for directions in the first week of
August.
The apex court had earlier also issued notices to
the railways and the Uttarakhand government seeking their responses to a batch
of pleas challenging the high court order for the removal of encroachments.
"Apart from that, there are issues of occupants
claiming rights in the land as lessees/auction purchasers. We have cavil to the
way the directions have been passed in the impugned order as there cannot be
uprooting of 50 thousand people overnight within seven days," the bench
had noted in its January 5 order.
"In the meantime, there shall be stay only of
the directions passed in the impugned order(s). That has also to be coupled
with complete restraint on any further occupation of land and/or construction
whether by the existing occupants or by anyone else," it had said.
In its December 20 last year order, the high court
had ordered the demolition of constructions on alleged encroached railway land
at Banbhoolpura in Haldwani.
It had directed that a week's notice be given to the
encroachers after which the encroachments should be demolished.
The residents have submitted in their plea that the
high court has gravely erred in passing the impugned 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.
There are religious places, schools, business
establishments and residences on an area spread over 29 acres of land in
Banbhoolpura.
The petitioners have claimed they have valid
documents that establish their title and valid occupation.