Supreme Court stays Uttarakhand High Court order for eviction of around 50,000 encroachers from railway land in Haldwani

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, January 5

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed an Uttarakhand High Court order for eviction of around 50,000 people who have illegally encroached upon the railway land in Haldwani.

"What is troubling is how do you deal with the situation...human angle is involved...there has to be rehabilitation," a Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.

"In the meantime, there shall be stay on the directions passed in the impugned order," the Bench ordered.

"There should also be restraint on any more construction/development on the land," it further ordered.

The Bench said, "There can't 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 rehabilitate while considering the interests of the railways.

Issuing notice to the railways and Uttarakhand on the petitions challenging the high court's eviction order, the Bench posted the matter for February 7.

During the hearing, the top court noted that a full rehabilitation of the people in the area was needed. 

The Bench, however, clarified that it had only stayed the eviction order passed by the high court and not the proceedings initiated under the Public Property Act.

It said people who don't have a right over the land would have to be removed along with a rehabilitation scheme.

Thousands of families are facing eviction from the railway land in Haldwani’s Banbhoolpura area after the Uttarakhand High Court ordered the removal of encroachments.