The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Central and Uttarakhand governments to come out with a scheme to rehabilitate the people who have been asked to vacate the encroachments from the railway land near Haldwani railway station.

A bench of Justice Surya Kant, Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan asked the railways authorities and governments to identify the land required for the expansion of railway tracks and the families likely to be affected.

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“As the first initiative, let the land which is required immediately be identified with full description. Similarly, the families who are likely to be affected in the event of taking possession of that land also be immediately identified,” the bench said.

Posting the matter for hearing on September 11, the bench asked the authorities to complete the exercise within four weeks.

In the course of the heating, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati requested the bench to vacate the stay saying that several expansion plans of the railways have been thwarted due to the non-availability of the land. ASG Bhati, appearing for the Centre, said that Haldwani is the gateway to the hills State and the last station before entering the Kumaon region.

The bench noted that approximately 30.04 hectares of land owned by the railways have been encroached upon and 4,365 houses constructed on it with over 50,000 people living on the encroached land.

`As Bhati requested to vacate the stay, the bench also observed “Assuming they are encroachers, still the ultimate question is whether they are all human beings. They have been residing for decades. These are all pucca houses. Courts can’t be ruthless, but at the same time, courts cannot encourage people to encroach. You as the State, when everything has been happening before your eyes, you also had to do something. The fact remains that people have been living there for 3-5 decades, perhaps even before independence. What have you been doing all these years?”

The top court was hearing an application of Railways for vacation stay on the eviction of the encroachers on the railway land to safeguard the railway tracks and the Haldwani railway station.

In 2023, the residents, sought to be evicted, had approached the top court against the Uttarakhand High Court’s order to evict the unauthorised occupants near the Haldwani railway station.

The Uttarakhand High Court had on December 20, 2023, had ordered removal of encroachments from railway land in Banbhoolpura area of Haldwani after giving a notice to the residents one week in advance.

Residents had protested against the removal of encroachments from railway land in compliance with a High Court order.

The residents, sought to be evicted, in their petition have stated that they are poor people who have been lawful residents of Mohalla Nai Basti, Haldwani district for more than 70 years.

The petitioners have stated that the names of local residents are entered in the municipal records relating to house tax and that they have been paying house tax regularly for years.

There are five government schools, one hospital and two overhead water tanks in the area, says the petition. The plea has further stated that “the long settled physical possession of the petitioners and their ancestors, some even prior to the date of Indian independence, has been recognised by State and its agencies and they have been given gas and water connections and even Aadhaar card numbers accepting their residential addresses.”