Haldwani: SC stays Uttarakhand HC order for removal of encroachments from Railway land

Indian Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a Uttarakhand High Court order for the removal of encroachments from 29 acres of land claimed by the railways in Haldwani, a popular city in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.

The Supreme Court termed it a "human issue" and said that 50,000 people cannot be uprooted overnight. The top court also asked the railways to find a practical solution to the issue.

During the hearing, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka said: "There is a human angle to it". The bench further added that there cannot be uprooting of several thousand people in seven days.

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The bench said that those people must be living there for many decades and it may not be correct to say that paramilitary forces have to be deployed to remove people.

India's top court also stayed the high court's direction for the eviction of families within a week. The high court's order had also mentioned that their houses be demolished.

The petitioners had claimed that they are poor. They had also argued that they have been lawful residents of Mohalla Nai Basti and Line No 17 & 18, Banbhulpura (Azad Nagar), Haldwani for more than 70 years.

The bench said: "There are two aspects of the issue. One, they claim leases. Two, they say people migrated after 1947, and the lands were auctioned."

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