CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has quashed the 2014 eviction order against long-standing residential occupants near the Veer Surendra Sai Medical College and Hospital (now rechristened as VIMSAR) at Burla in Sambalpur district.
The single-judge bench of Justice SK Panigrahi on Friday held that the tehsildar lacked jurisdiction to initiate eviction under the Orissa Prevention of Land Encroachment (OPLE) Act without a requisition from the land-owning Irrigation department. “The tehsildar could not, proprio motu (on one’s own initiative), and divorced from the land-owning department’s requisition/authorisation, press the OPLE engine to evict decades-old residential occupation,” Justice Panigrahi observed, emphasising that “the requirement that the department in whom the title vests be the prime mover is not a pedantic technicality but a structural safeguard”.
The judge also questioned the collector’s reliance on a 2011 PIL, clarifying that “a PIL direction to proceed ‘under the relevant provisions’ is an injunction to act lawfully, not a charter to dispense with jurisdictional facts”. The order held that VSS MCH lacked statutory standing to seek revision without title or lawful vesting of the disputed land.
“The collector’s reliance on the PIL order as a self-executing warrant for eviction is misplaced,” the court ruled, restoring the sub-collector’s 2012 order that had earlier quashed the tehsildar’s eviction notice. While acknowledging that long possession does not confer title, the court stated that any eviction must be “preceded by a considered, departmental decision” and adherence to due process.
It directed the state and the Irrigation department to initiate fresh proceedings only upon proper identification, vesting, and compliance with legal safeguards. The court also granted interim protection from dispossession for the petitioners until six months after settlement operations conclude, cautioning that such protection shall not be construed to create any equitable title.
The judgment was passed on seven writ petitions challenging an eviction order dated September 26, 2014, passed by the then Sambalpur collector, under the Orissa Prevention of Land Encroachment (OPLE) Act. The order reversed a 2012 appellate decision of the sub-collector that had quashed earlier eviction orders against residents of Burla, near the VSS Medical College and Hospital campus.
After the petitions were filed in 2014, the high court had, in an interim order, imposed restriction on any coercive action by the authorities as part of the eviction proceedings. The petitioners, residing on the land for over six decades, claim historical possession since the Hirakud Dam construction era, asserting they have since received civic amenities and recognition from public authorities.
