MUMBAI: The Bombay high court last week in interim orders, directed that no further demolitions are to be carried out until March 1 "in contravention of the Supreme Court order anywhere on Western Railway lands in Greater Mumbai."
In a February 8 order, the HC also sought information on whether Western Railways, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) have in place any rehabilitation policy or system, and what the eligibility criteria are.
"Throughout, we bear in mind that merely labelling these persons as "encroachers" is not going to answer the problem. This is a serious problem in the city and it is a problem of human displacement. Sometimes, the scale of the displacement is beyond the imagination. It has to be addressed in a more considered fashion than by merely deploying bulldozers on the site", said the HC bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale while hearing a petition filed by one Ekta Welfare Society against such eviction notice and demolition action by WR.
The HC sought urgent affidavits in reply from the railways explaining what, if any, steps the Railways took following the Supreme Court order of December 16, 2021 which had directed WR to immediately issue two week notices to ‘occupants’ of structures with the belt on railway land immediately required for commencing remaining project works, to vacate; and six week notices to others on railway land not immediately required for projects. The SC said “if occupants fail to vacate unauthorized structures, it will be open to the WR to initiate" action to "forcibly dispossess" them and to demolish the structure.
But, before commencing the eviction the district collector must collect and store details of the occupants to consider eligibility of those persons for being provided suitable residential accommodation. The SC said the WR, local government and State to pay Rs 2000 per month for each demolished structure for six months and in case of any rehabilitation scheme the affected persons may apply.
The SC order also directed state governments to "initiate appropriate action against the erring persons, including the officials of the concerned establishment for allowing and tolerating such encroachment and for not taking corrective action of removal of encroachments in right earnest and at the earliest opportunity."
The HC said, "it is even now unclear" if WR took up the rehabilitation issue with MMRDA and sought the authority’s response.
The HC however said, "We clarify that we have not indicated that MMRDA or MCGM are necessarily bound to rehabilitate those ousted in Western Railways Encroachment Removal Drives."
The Railways said it has so far demolished 101 structures and threw debris in “low lying area” outside railway land which the HC deprecated saying it would presumably get washed into the Arabian sea.
"We most emphatically do not approve of this approach," said Justice Patel while dictating the order in open court. The demolition report said no personal belongings were taken from the site.
"The report does not indicate whether any survey was done of the 101 unauthorized structures. It does not indicate whether any process of eligibility was undertaken. In no sense is this in keeping with even the letter, let alone the spirit, of the SC orders", said the HC restraining the WR till March 1.
When the advocate for the Railways sought liberty to mention the matter on an earlier date the HC permitted with prior notice to the petitioner, saying " there is some anxiety expressed on behalf of railways regarding further demolition."
