2 months ago
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The Supreme Court connected Tuesday (February 24, 2026) directed Uttarakhand officials and the State Legal Services Authority to behaviour camps to promote astir 50,000 radical occupying implicit 30 hectares of nationalist onshore adjacent the railway tracks of Haldwani to use for benefits and rehabilitation measures nether the Pradhan Mantri Awaz Yojana (PMAY) scheme.
The onshore is being reclaimed by the Railways for infrastructure development, compelling astir 5,000 families to permission a spot they had occupied for fractional a century. The quality betwixt the Railways and State authorities connected 1 broadside and the occupants connected the different person been prolonged.
On Tuesday (February 24, 2026), a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the “stalemate” betwixt the 2 sides cannot spell connected indefinitely.
“This is nationalist land. You reason arsenic if you are the proprietor of the land. You tin person the concession of being considered, but it is amerciable to encroach connected nationalist land,” Justice Bagchi addressed advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neh Rathi, appearing for the occupants.
Mr. Bhushan submitted that the State had projected to regularise the possession of the onshore and had adjacent promised patta (title) to the occupants.
Justice Bagchi said it was the prerogative of the State to “do what it wanted connected nationalist land. The happening present is you person been occupying the onshore for a agelong clip and you indispensable fixed immoderate benignant of a cushion. For you, it is much of a privilege and little a right”.
Additional Solicitor-General Aishwarya Bhati, for the Railways, said a flooding Ghaula River habitually disrupts railway operations successful a portion known arsenic the doorway to the hills of Uttarakhand. The Railways required much onshore urgently to laic caller tracks.
Striking a equilibrium betwixt improvement requirements and the quality constituent down evicting thousands of families, Chief Justice Kant suggested that the State could get alternate onshore nether the PMAY for the rehabilitation of the evictees. Instead of monetary compensation, the magnitude could beryllium utilized for operation of homes which were equivalent to those the evictees had to permission behind.
Referring to the span of specified alternate land, the CJI said the colonisation of those evicted would increase, requiring abstraction for schools, wellness centres, etc.
The tribunal directed the Uttarakhand State Legal Services Authority to behaviour aggregate rehabilitation camps from March 19 to March 31, clasp door-to-door campaigns, and guarantee that families are made alert of the PMAY benefits and transportation each caput of the household surviving astatine tract to use nether the programme.
The Bench said the District Collector and authorities would find the family-wise eligibility nether PMAY. The State was directed to taxable a presumption study connected the fig of families recovered eligible.
