Haldwani eviction case to be heard by Supreme Court tomorrow

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the petitions against Haldwani railway land eviction will be heard on Thursday, January 5 [Iqtadar Ullah vs Ravi Shankar and others]..A related matter was mentioned before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud by advocate Prashant Bhushan. "This petition (relating to Haldwani) is listed tomorrow. If our plea can be tagged with it," Bhushan said."Yes it will come up tomorrow," CJI Chandrachud said..More than 4,000 families are facing eviction from railway land in Haldwani’s Banbhoolpura area after an Uttarakhand High Court order passed in December 2022 directed the removal of encroachments.Those facing eviction have been living on the land for many decades. They have contended that the BJP-ruled State government did not argue their case properly before the High Court as a consequence of which the Court ruled in favour of the Railways. .The lead petition filed through advocates Akshay Sapre, Abhijeet Swaroop, Akshat Kumar and Vinam Gupta said that eviction of the petitioners would render them homeless since they belong to marginalised sections of the society. ."Petitioner and similarly situated residents of land belong to economically weaker and marginalised sections of society having no means to find a new place of residence or livelihood, if evicted on the basis of the impugned judgment and order passed by the Hon’ble High Court considering them as encroachers," the plea stated..The petitioner further argued that adjudication of title in respect of an immovable property entails exhaustive examination of documents / witnesses, cross-examination of witnesses, review of pleadings etc., cannot be done by the High Court in a summary proceeding under Article 226 of the Constitution. .The matter mentioned by advocate Prashant Bhushan was on behalf of certain residents of Mohalla Nai Basti and Line No. 17 & 18, Banbhulpura (Azad Nagar), Haldwani District Nainital, Uttarakhand for more than 70 years. .They have contended that High Court gravely erred in holding that the Public Premises Act is not applicable to the Railway Authorities. "The said error is multifaceted. Firstly, the applicability of the Public Premises Act was not challenged and no relief qua the same was sought in the PIL and hence the High Court ought to not have taken it upon itself to enter into an undisputed issue," it was submitted.