‘Not correct to say paramilitary forces…’: Supreme Court on Haldwani land case

In a major relief for thousands on the cusp of becoming homeless in the middle of a harsh winter, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the planned eviction of families allegedly living on ‘encroached’ land belonging to Indian Railways in Haldwani district of Uttarakhand.

The top court stopped authorities from displacing over 4,000 families as the eviction would have resulted in the demolition of houses, schools, temples, banks, mosques etc, and expressed displeasure over the need for paramilitary forces to remove the people living on the land for decades. The Supreme Court also demanded a ‘workable arrangement’ be established, pointing out repeatedly that the issue involved a ‘human angle’.

Here are the top quotes from the Supreme Court hearing today:

“There cannot be uprooting of 50,000 people overnight,” a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and AS Oka observed.

“It may not be correct to say that paramilitary forces have to be deployed to remove people who have been living there for decades,” Justice Oka said.

“The human issue arises from long periods of occupation. Maybe all of them cannot be painted with the same brush,” Justice Kaul said.

“What is troubling us is how do you deal with a situation where people bought in auction and took possession after 1947 and acquired title. You may acquire the land but what to do now,” he said.

“Even in those cases where there are no rights at all even in them rehabilitation has to be done. But in some cases where they acquired title… you have to find a solution. There is a human angle to this issue,” Justice Kaul noted.