Tribune News Service
New Delhi, Jun 7
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered eviction of around 10,000 residential structures illegally constructed in Lakkadpur-Khori village in the Aravali forest area of Faridabad district in Haryana.
A Bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar ordered the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad and the Faridabad Police to evict the illegal occupants of government land in six weeks. “Land grabbers can’t take refuge under rule of law,” the top court said.
“In our opinion the petitioners are bound by the directions given by the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Supreme Court in orders..,” the bench said in the order and made clear that the state government may consider the plea of rehabilitation independently.
“Therefore we reiterate our directions given to the state and the Faridabad Municipal Corporation and expect that the corporation will remove all encroachments on forest land not later than 6 weeks and report compliance..,” the bench ordered after hearing a plea filed by five alleged encroachers led by one Sarina Sarkar against the demolition drive of the civic body.
The top court, in a hearing conducted via video conferencing, directed that the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Faridabad will be responsible for providing police protection to the civic body officials in the demolition drive.
The bench made clear that the compliance of earlier orders, asking removal of encroachments from forest land, would be verified by it. During the hearing, the bench took note of the submission that the illegal dwellers have no place to go and the state be directed to rehabilitate them before their eviction, saying the “land grabbers cannot take refuge in the rule of law” and talk of “fairness”.
“Let the people be accommodated as soon as they are evicted,” senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for petitioners, said. “Who is asking this? Land grabbers! When you come to court you become honest and law abiding and on site, you do not do anything lawful,” the bench observed.
The bench said that it would be asking the civic body, as to why the encroachments have not been removed despite its February, 2020 order on it. So far as forest land is concerned, there was no question of compromise irrespective of the policy, the bench said. With inputs from PTI