January 5, 2023
50,000 Indian Muslims fear homelessness as their houses face demolition
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The Supreme Court Thursday stayed an order passed by the Uttarakhand High Court to evict over 4,000 families living on “encroached” Railways land in Haldwani City. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and A S Oka observed that the matter was a “human issue”, and that 50,000 people couldn’t be evicted in seven days. The court will hear the matter again on February 7
The Supreme Court said that large number of people cannot be uprooted by using force without examining rights of the occupants. According to local residents, the 78-acre area has around 25,000 voters, including several elderly persons and pregnant women, as well as 15,000 children.
The bench of justices observed that it is a 'human issue' and some workable solution needs to be found to remove trespassers and also rehabilitate them. "You have to find a practical way out," the apex court told the Indian Railways, which claim right over the land.
On December 20, the Uttarakhand high court ordered demolition of constructions over the encroached railway land. It directed that a week's notice be given to the encroachers after which the encroachments should be demolished.
The residents said that they had the relevant documents and expressed hope that the apex court would consider the fact that they had been living on the land for 100 years and deliver a verdict in their favor.
Talking to The Indian Express, Congress legislator from Haldwani, Sumit Hridayesh, said they welcome the fair process of law, and that the stay will “restore balance” in the area. “We knew that the Supreme Court would give a stay. We’re very pleased that the due and fair process of law took place,” said Sumit.
Earlier, several residents of the affected area had claimed that removing them and demolishing their homes was vendetta politics by the ruling BJP for them voting for the Congress. “In the 2021 State Assembly elections, most of the votes from Banbhoolpura went to Congress candidate Sumit Hridayesh. He got around 30,000 votes from here, while the BJP got just a few hundred votes. This is why the government wants to give us a message. This is vendetta politics,” said a local.
In 2002, when the first State Assembly elections were held in Uttarakhand, Indira Hridayesh won Haldwani by a margin of 3,058 votes, defeating the BJP’s Banshidhar Bhagat. In 2007, Bhagat defeated Indira by 4,235 votes. In 2012, Indira again won the seat with a massive margin of 23,583 votes, defeating the BJP’s Renu Adhikari. While the margin of votes fell to 6,557 in 2017, Indira again won Haldwani, defeating the BJP’s Jogendra Pal Singh Rautela.
After the June 2021 death of Indira Hridayesh – who was one of the most senior Congress leaders from the hill state and a Leader of Opposition in the Assembly – her son Sumit was given the Haldwani ticket by the Congress. In the 2022 State Assembly elections, Sumit secured 50,116 (50.18 per cent) votes to defeat the BJP’s Rautela by 7,814 votes. The number of votes received by Sumit was higher than what his mother had ever secured.
Talking to The Indian Express before the Supreme Court order, Sumit said the Railways originally submitted an affidavit claiming they own 29 acres of land here. But later, they claimed they own 78 acres. Haldwani is 70 per cent nazul land (government land used for non-agricultural purposes). Only 30 per cent land is registered or freehold. That’s why, rather than the people encroaching upon the land, it is the Railways that are the encroachers,” said Sumit.
Advocate Piyush Garg, who represented one of the intervenors in the matter, said the Railways does not have any documents that show the extent of their land holdings, a fact that was not put strongly in the High Court.
Several residents have also said that their properties were purchased from the government via auction of properties left by those who had emigrated to Pakistan during the 1947 Partition. Advocate Tanweer Alam Khan added that the affected residents have produced documents in court showing they have freehold rights on the properties.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is theĀ Editor -in-Chief of the Journal of America: www.journalofamerica.net. email: asghazali2011@gmail.com
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
