CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the refusal of authorities to settle land in favour of residents of Shantipalli Basti in Sahid Nagar and has allowed the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) to proceed with the redevelopment project planned for the area.
The single judge bench of Justice SK Panigrahi held that the rights claimed by the petitioners, many of whom asserted that their families had been living in the basti for three to four generations, did not translate into an enforceable claim over public land. The HC clarified that long-standing ancestral occupation does not confer a legally enforceable right to perpetuate residence upon public land in defiance of a statutory redevelopment plan.
Affirming the land transfer to BMC/BDA and the decisions of the State-Level Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee, Justice Panigrahi directed petitioners to shift to designated transit accommodation within a stipulated period. He asked BMC and BDA to extend financial facilitation, including bank-linked credit to those unable to pay beneficiary contributions upfront along with a monitoring committee to oversee allotments, transit facilities and financial support.
Accordingly, while disposing of all petitions, the HC cautioned that the interim status quo order will stand vacated if the petitioners fail to comply within the prescribed time.
The petitioners had alleged that authorities were pressuring them to vacate Shantipalli Basti through loudspeaker announcements without following due process or the safeguards mandated by the Supreme Court.
They contended that more than 400 families including Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other vulnerable groups had long been residing in the locality and had been issued ration cards, voter IDs, Aadhaar and civic amenities such as water supply and electricity. They also claimed entitlement under the state’s Jaga Mission.
The HC, however, found that the administration had followed a “studied deliberation” rather than any abrupt action. It noted that the authorities had undertaken a comprehensive enumeration of slum dwellers, identified beneficiaries with precision, issued formal allotment orders, constructed transit houses equipped with essential amenities and facilitated bank-linked financial support to the economically vulnerable.
