new Delhi: “50,000 people cannot be uprooted in seven days,” the Supreme Court said on Thursday, staying the Uttarakhand High Court’s direction to remove encroachments from 29 acres of railway land in Haldwani.
The apex court also sought response from the Railways and the Uttarakhand government on December 20 after opposing the High Court order.
Describing it as a “humanitarian issue”, the top court said a “workable solution” needs to be found.
The next hearing in the case will be on February 7.
A bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Abhay S Oka on Thursday took exception to the Uttarakhand High Court’s order that encroachments be removed in seven days.
Following that order, the authorities issued an eviction notice that affected over 4,000 families who they said had been living in the area for decades. He also claimed that he had documents recognized by government officials.
Justice SK Kaul observed during the hearing: “There are two sides to the issue. One, they claim the lease. Two, they say people left after 1947 and the lands were auctioned. People lived there for so many years. Some rehabilitation has to be given. There are establishments. How can you say make them clean in seven days?”
Hearing a batch of special leave petitions, Justice Oka said: “People say they have been there for 50 years.” He said that the High Court passed the eviction order without listening to the affected parties. “Find a solution. It’s a humanitarian issue.”
Kaul said, ‘What is bothering us is how do you deal with the scenario of people who have bought land in the auction. You can acquire and use the land. The second thing is that people have been living there for 5-60 years. Some rehabilitation plan has to be done, even if it is railway land… there is a humanitarian angle to it.’