NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear tomorrow's pleas challenging the Uttarakhand High Court order directing removal of Gafoor Basti spread across 29 acres of railway land in Haldwani.
A bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices S A Nazeer and PS Narasimha posted the matter for hearing after advocate Prashant Bhushan mentioned it. Bhushan informed the bench about another plea filed by Haldwani’s Mohalla Nai Basti residents earlier, which was scheduled to come up on Thursday. The bench agreed to tag the matter and posted it for Thursday.
The pleas challenges the Uttarakhand HC’s December 12, 2022 order for the removal of rampant encroachment of the railway land in the town’s Banbhoolpura area and gave encroachers a week’s time to vacate it. The pleas challenging HCs ruling were moved by Sharafat Khan and Bhupendra Arya.
“By way of the impugned order, the court has attempted to subvert the due process of appeal and hearing provided in the relevant statutory law by not hearing the affected parties,” the plea filed by Sharaft Khan stated. It was also argued that hundreds of people affected by the eviction order were suffering another unjust consequence of the HC order.
In another plea which was filed by residents of Mohalla Nai Basti, it was stated that local residents were paying house tax regularly for years. “The High Court, in complete disregard of the settled principles of title and occupation, collectively rejected all documents placed by the petitioners that clearly established their claim,” the plea stated.
The plea highlighted “arbitrary approach” of the railway authorities and state government, saying the petitioner’s and their ancestors’ long-settled physical possession, some even prior to the date of Indian independence, has been recognized by the State and its agencies. “They have been given gas and water connections and even Aadhaar card numbers thus accepting their residential addresses,” the residents’ plea said.
Massive encroachment