Our in-house experts often respond quickly to emerging land conflict cases with threads on twitter which you can later find curated on our website in the shape of a  blog. 

Our colleagues Anmol Gupta and Mukta Joshi responded to the controversial evictions ordered by the Uttarkahand High Court in Gaffur Basti, Haldwani. 

A Controversial Judgement. Stayed.

In December 2022, the Uttarakhand high court permitted railway authorities to evict over 4,000 families from Gaffur Basti in Haldwani for encroaching on railway land. 

The residents argued that they had valid leases over the land, which they claimed was Nazul land, and not land owned by Indian Railways. Nazul land is a term for government land that can be used for non-agricultural purposes. 

But, ordering the eviction, the high court invalidated a 1907 notification, which classified the land as Nazul land, as a mere ‘office memorandum’. It also invalidated all auctions, sales and lease of the land by government officials after the 1907 notification.  

In doing so, the high court overlooked the Supreme Court order of 1985, which requires that the government give a prior notice and a reasonable opportunity to hear those threatened with eviction. The government had not done so in the Haldwani case. 

Early January, the Supreme Court stepped in. It stayed an order by the Uttarakhand High Court, which threatened to evict and turn almost 50 thousand people homeless. It directed the government to find a workable arrangement for people with rehabilitation schemes. 

We parsed through the facts to understand how the high court had erred. You can read the blog by our Uttarakhand researcher Urvashi Mahtolia here. 

From Our Database
Last month, we added six new conflicts to our database. 

1. Stories from a sinking Joshimath rattled the country. Rampant construction of hydroelectric projects, tunnels and roads has led to almost the entire hill town becoming unlivable as homes developed cracks and people began relocating. But, that has not stopped the government from planning more dams in the fragile region. Another one is coming up, a 660MW dam on the river Tons that flows along the border of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The proposed dam is set to come up in Dehradun district and, if completed, will be Asia’s second largest dam. The villagers who will be affected have held several protests opposing its construction.
2. In Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district, fisher folk are protesting the construction of a road along the beach. Communities argue that the road will impact their livelihood. They approached the National Green Tribunal, which has stayed construction of the project.
3. In another case we documented close to Bengaluru, farmers have opposed the acquisition of their lands for an industrial park.
4. In Tamil Nadu’s Kanchipuram, residents of a village are protesting against a proposed new airport in the area. In October last year, the gram sabha passed a resolution against the project.
5. Authorities in Delhi demolished around 300 settlements last year in a move to clear encroachments from the Yamuna floodplains. A case regarding this was filed in the Delhi High Court, which pointed out that authorities had not given prior notice to the residents.
6. In Maharashtra, thousands of slum dwellers were served eviction notices by Indian railways. Authorities argue that the people live on land belonging to the Mumbai Suburban Railway.