Wednesday, 02 November 2022 | PNS | NAINITAL
The Uttarakhand High Court has reserved its judgement after hearing the contentions of the petitioner, railways and the encroachers for two days in a public interest litigation regarding encroachment on railway land in Vanbhulpura area of Haldwani. During the hearing, the encroachers stated that they should be given an opportunity to be heard as the railways had not heard them. On the other hand, the railways stated that the encroachers had been served notices under the relevant Act and that their position was also heard. The State government said that the land does not belong to the State government but belongs to the railways. The petitioner pointed out that despite the repeated orders of the court the encroachment had not been removed from the said land of the railways. In the past, the court had directed the encroachers to present their objections in the court.
According to the case details, in November 2016, while hearing on the PIL filed by Ravishankar Joshi the HC had ordered that encroachments from the railways land should be removed within 10 weeks. The court had directed that those who were encroaching on the said land should be issued notices under the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act and that public hearings should be held. It was stated by the railways that about 29 acre land of the railways had been encroached upon in Haldwani. There were about 4,365 encroachers occupying the said land. On the directions of the High Court, the encroachers had been served notices under the relevant Act and proper hearings were conducted by the railways. It was further stated that none of the encroachers had valid documentation for the land they were occupying. The railways had also written to the Nainital district magistrate twice seeking security for removal of encroachers from its land. However, no response had been received to the letters by the railways till date whereas in December 2021 the Supreme court had issued guidelines to all the States directing that in case of encroachments made on railways land, those occupying the land near the railway track should be evicted within two weeks and those occupying land farther away should be evicted within six weeks after issuance of notices in order to facilitate expansion of railways.
