SC to hear pleas against removal of encroachment in Haldwani on Aug 7

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a matter in which it had stayed the Uttarakhand High Court directions for the removal of encroachments from 29 acres of land that has been claimed by the railways in Haldwani.

According to the cause list uploaded on the apex court website, the pleas challenging the high court order are listed for hearing on August 7 before a bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia.

The apex court had on May 2 said that its interim order staying the high court’s December 20 last year directions will continue during the pendency of appeals before it.

“The interim order(s) is made absolute during the pendency of the appeals,” the top court had said in its May 2 order.

On January 5, the top court had in an interim order stayed the high court’s directions for removal of encroachments from 29 acres of land, terming it a “human issue” and saying 50,000 people cannot be uprooted overnight.

According to the railways, there are 4,365 encroachers on the land. The occupants were earlier staging protests in Haldwani, asserting they were the rightful owners of the land.

Nearly 50,000 people, a majority of them Muslims, belonging to over 4,000 families reside on the disputed land.

While hearing the matter in May, the apex court had asked the lawyers appearing for the railways as well as the state government about how much time they will take to find a solution.