LI Network
Published on: 04 January 2023 at 18:49 IST
Supreme Court to hear a petition challenging the Uttarakhand High Court order to vacate 29 acres of railway land in Haldwani.
Supreme Court Advocate Prashant Bhushan made a formal mention in the Supreme Court, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices SA Nazeer and PS Narasimha.
The Bench replied on Prashant Bhushan’s Mentioning that it will hear this on Thursday.
The Uttrakhand High Court ordered to Demolish of Properties near the Haldwani Railway Station.
The district administration, following the court’s order of December 20 after a long litigation, has issued a notice in the newspapers asking people to take away their belongings by January 9. It covers a 2-km strip of land near the Haldwani Railway Station- Gafoor Basti, Dholak Basti and Indira Nagar, in Banbhulpura area.
A congregational prayer, ‘Ijtemai dua’, was performed by hundreds of them at a mosque in the locality. Imam of Masjid Umar, Maulana Mukim Qasmi, told ANI that people collectively prayed for a solution. Some of the protesters were seen crying.
Police and the civic administration say the high court’s order as applicable for now has to be followed. “We’ve divided the area into zones for easy implementation,” said Police.
District Magistrate Dheeraj S Garbyal, however, said, “People stay here on railway land. They have to be removed. Our preparations are going on for this. We have demanded force. We’ll remove them soon.”
The matter reached court in 2013, when a petition was originally about illegal sand mining in a river near the area.
About how such large-scale construction was permitted on its land, divisional railway official Vivek Gupta was quoted as saying: “This (encroachment along railway lines) is a nationwide phenomenon. We regret this”.