New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI) The Delhi High Court todaydirected a group of visually impaired students, whose hostelwas recently demolished, to immediately shift to the alternatefacilities being provided to them by the DDA.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice CHari Shankar said its order of January 3 asking them to moveout of the area has to be complied with.
The court was displeased that the visually impairedstudents' had not moved out from the site and were livingthere in a tent, saying "our orders will not be frustratedlike this".
The bench said it took up the issue of the students onits own after coming to know of their plight and was workingto ensure proper facilities for them.
"This is not expected when we were giving themfacilities. Our orders will not be frustrated like this. We donot approve of this. Please shift to the community centre. Ifthey do not move, we will ensure physical removal," an angrybench said.
It said "we have not left any poor or disabled person outon a limb."The remarks of the court came after the Delhi DevelopmentAuthority (DDA) submitted that it was asking the students toshift to the community centre, but they were not moving out.
The court told the students' lawyers that by not shiftingfrom the site, they were "encroaching on public land".
It gave them time till January 24, the next date ofhearing, to move to the community centre.
The court on January 3 also had told them to move to analternative accommodation, saying they were illegal occupantsof government land and cannot claim legal right over it.
The court was hearing a PIL by nine visually impairedstudents, who have alleged that DDA acted illegally inforcibly evicting them from the hostel in south-west Delhiwhere they were residing since 2000.
The court has taken up the issue on its own also after itcame across a news report that 20 students were sleeping inthe open after their hostel, Louis Welfare ProgressiveAssociation of the Blind in Janakpuri here, was demolished onDecember 15 last year.
The report had claimed that the occupants were neithergiven prior information about the demolition nor ample time togather their belongings.
Around 20 people, mostly students of Delhi University orthe nearby Sarvodaya school, used to stay there. PTI HMP PPSARC.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.