J&K eviction drive case listed for Friday in the Supreme Court
JAMMU: The Supreme Court will hear a case on Friday that asks the court to stay the Jammu and Kashmir government’s directive to clear suspected encroachments from state property by January 31.
A bench headed by Justice M R Shah and comprising of Justice Hima Kohli will hear the petition, which opposes a massive land retrieval operation launched by the administration across the Union Territory which has set the January 31 deadline to evict encroachers from State, Roshni and Kahcharai land.
The matter was brought to the attention of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud earlier this week. When informed that the matter was urgent and that Justice Sanjiv Khanna had recused from hearing it, the chief justice agreed to examine the plea and ordered for listing it. “The solicitor general of India had assured the Supreme Court on the behalf of the Jammu and Kashmir government that no coercive action will be taken against the beneficiaries under the Roshni Act.
The J&K government also filed a review petition in the high court saying it wants to formulate a policy for regularising the land of people who have built their houses or set up their shops under the Roshni Act,” says Khan, who had resigned from Jammu and Kashmir Judicial Services in the year 2019 to join National Conference, a party on whose mandate his father had won MLA election from Rajouri constituency. “However, contrary to their assurances and stances in both the courts, the government on January 9 ordered the eviction drive from Roshni land as well. The people of Jammu and Kashmir are distressed. We had to knock the doors of the Supreme Court then,” he added.
Khan says his petition is on the ground that government’s January 9 action is contrary to its responses filed in the Supreme Court and the J&K High Court.
It may be mentioned here that the J&K High Court headed by the then Chief Justice Gita Mittal had declared the Roshni Act unconstitutional in October 2020 and had taken away the benefits of regularization conferred upon the beneficiaries under the Roshni Act. A number of review petitions were filed against the judgment in the high court, besides Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) in the Supreme Court of India. Khan is also among those who have filed petitions in the Supreme Court.
The J&K government itself filed a review petition, desiring slight modifications to formulate a policy for poor people who are having small dwelling houses and also for landless agriculturist category.
A couple of days after he initiated the mega eviction drive, Vijay Bidhuri, the administrative head of the Revenue Department, had told that retrieval of large tracks, high-value land across the union territory was government’s target and that the poor citizens of the union territory who have their houses and shops on small pieces of land are not on its priority list.
Muzaffar Khan, however, sees very little value in Bidhuri’s assertions.
“The government does not run on verbal assurances or statement. It runs on papers. What government is saying verbally is mentioned nowhere in its January 9 circular,” Khan told. “There is no distinction between the large encroachers and the small dwellers in the circular,” Khan further said.
In a significant development on January 9, the Commissioner Secretary to the Government, Department of Revenue, issued directions to all the Deputy Commissioners to ensure 100% removal of encroachments from State land including Roshni and Kahcharai by 31st January, 2023, Pointing towards instructions issued from time to time, Bihduri directed all twenty DCs to draw up a daily anti-encroachment drive plan with the Divisional Commissioners asked to monitor the drive on a regular basis. The DCs are required to furnish details about total encroached land on the day, encroachment removed day wise and balance so that the Government gets a clear picture about the progress made on each and every day till the January 31 deadline.
With a number of concerns pouring in from all quarters, Bidhuri had sought to clarify that the common public will not suffer from the mega-drive.
“The government is a welfare state. We are against the encroachments and encroachers. The land retrieved will be used for public purposes which will in turn help in development of the local area. This exercise we are undertaking is for the people. We are not against the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Bidhuri had told The Dispatch in a telephonic conversation.
“However, the poor people who have constructed their houses and set up their shops on small pieces of land across the region do not figure on the priority list,” he had said.
