Supreme Court verdict on Haldwani's Banphoolpura: Residents rejoice, but issue remains

Vibha Sharma

Chandigarh, January 7

On Thursday the Supreme Court stayed the Uttarakhand High Court order for the eviction of around 50,000 people “illegally encroaching” upon the railway land in Haldwani’s Banbhoolpura area.

“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,” The Tribune quoted the Supreme Court as saying.

The apex court also clarified that it had only stayed the eviction order passed by the High Court and not the proceedings initiated under the Public Property Act. People who don’t have a right over the land would have to be removed along with a rehabilitation scheme, it was quoted as saying.

The High Court had on December 20 ordered the removal of 4,500 settlements after which a public notice was issued on December 30 by the Divisional Railway Manager, Izzatnagar, to vacate the land within a week.

The decision pertained to a PIL filed in 2013.

Soon, a celebration broke out in Banbhoolpura with the affected residents celebrating the Supreme Court order.

The issue

This was not the first time such scenes played out in Banphoolpura, reports suggest.

The long-pending issue related to the “encroachment over the railways land” has seen several rounds of legal battle regarding its ownership.

Several RTI applications have also been filed by residents, seeking clarification over the ownership of the land.

Around 2016-17, the High Court directed the state government to clear the alleged encroachments after which residents approached the Supreme Court.

Residents claim the land they are in “legal possession” of is, in fact, Nazul land, “non-agricultural land owned by the government which can be leased to families and at times also be given as freehold”.  The claim is based on a 1907 document which the High Court believes is just an office document and, therefore, invalid for determining the correct ownership of the land.

In legal parlance, Nazul land means “abadi land within the limits of a municipality or a panchayat circle or a village, town or city, vesting in the state government”.

Majority of Banbhoolpura residents claim to have lived there all their lives in the slums. Many say they are in possession of land for as many as 50 years, have ownership documents, including sales deeds and copies of leases, to prove that they are its legal occupiers.

Advocates for petitioners also claim that the “High Court order did not take into account the state’s Reforms, Regularisation, Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Prevention of Encroachment of the Slums Act, 2016”, as per reports.

Political angle 

Meanwhile, the majority of those living here belong to the Muslim community, making the issue an easy target for political one-upmanship.

Residents claim the eviction drive is politically motivated, aimed at changing the demography of the region to benefit the ruling BJP which failed to do well there in the last elections.