There cannot be school without playground; students entitled to good environment: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court recently highlighted the need for schools to have playgrounds and for school-going students to have a good environment. [State of Haryana and ors vs Satpal and ors].A bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna took note of this aspect while calling for the removal of encroachments from certain land earmarked for a school playground. .The Court found that on account of such encroachment, a school adjacent to the land had no playground at all. The bench proceeded to remark,"There cannot be any school without playground. Even the students, who study in such a school are entitled to a good environment," the Court said..Hence, any unauthorised possession of land meant for playgrounds, cannot be directed to be legalised, the Court added..The bench, therefore, proceeded to direct the persons found to have illegally occupied the said plot of land to vacate the area within twelve months, or face removal of their unauthorised constructions..The ruling came on an appeal by the Haryana government against a 2016 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that had paved the way for the regularisation of the encroachments near the school..Before the High Court, the respondents (private individuals) had offered to give double the land to the gram panchayat instead of having to give up possession over the encroached land. Other such persons had offered to pay the market value of the land. Prior to this, a local commissioner had filed a report establishing that the respondents and other occupants were in unauthorised possession of the land. .The High Court had disposed of the case after directing that the concerned authorities could segregate vacant areas from residential plots on the encroached land, wherever possible, and use the vacant plots for the school's use. The authorities were also given the option of availing the respondents' offer of being given alternative land or the market value for the encroached land, to legalise the unauthorised occupation. .The Supreme Court, however, opined that the High Court's directions could not be implemented. The top court proceeded to conclude that the High Court had committed a very serious error in directing the authorities to legalise the unauthorized occupation of the gram panchayat's land. .The bench noted that no alternative panchayati land was available to be used as a school playground. In this regard, the Court noted that other land adjacent to the school belonged to other private parties who did not want to part with their plots. .Hence, the Supreme Court set aside the High Court order as "unsustainable" and called for the removal of encroachments. "... the original writ petitioners are granted 12 months’ time to vacate the land, which is occupied by them unauthorizedly and if within one year from today, they do not vacate the lands in question, the appropriate authority is directed to remove their unauthorized and illegal occupation and possession," the Court said. .Additional Advocate General Rakesh Mudgal with advocates Samar Vijay Singh, Amrita Verma, Keshav Mittal, and Sabarni Som appeared for the State of Haryana..Advocates Surender Deswal, Abhaya Nath Das, SS Bandyopadhyay, Beena, Rahul Singh, VK Shukla, Riya Soni, and Satish Kumar appeared for the respondents. .[Read Judgment]