Scale Of Human Displacement Beyond Imagination, Labelling People As ‘Encroachers’ & Deploying Bulldozers No Solution: Bombay High Court

Merely labelling people as “encroachers” and “deploying bulldozers” is not the solution as the scale of human displacement is beyond imagination, the Bombay High Court said in an interim order, while calling for a more considerate approach to address the issue of alleged encroachments.The division bench of Justice Gautam Patel and Justice Neela Gokhale disapproved of the manner used to demolish around 101 “illegal” structures on Western Railways land and said "no further demolitions are to be carried out until the next date in contravention of the Supreme Court order anywhere on Western Railway lands in Greater Mumbai." Ekta Welfare Trust has approached the court against the demolition drive. Noting that the Supreme Court was told that persons affected would be accommodated or rehabilitated under Prime Minister Awas Yojana Scheme (PMAYS) after scrutiny with regard to their eligibility, the court said: “In the present case, none of that seems to have been done."Continuing, it said, "the eviction notices don’t mention any rehabilitation scheme or the eligibility requirement for the scheme.” The bench further said that the notices weren’t even issued under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.Questioning whether the authorities have in place any rehabilitation policy or system, the court said:“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.”The court clarified that it wasn’t indicating that Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) or Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) are necessarily bound to rehabilitate those ousted in Western Railways Encroachment Removal Drives. During the hearing, the court also recorded that 101 structures have already been demolished. The debris generated after demolition and "unserviceable released material were broken" and thrown outside the railway land at a low-lying area but no personal belongings were taken from the site, it added.“While we note this [joint demolition] report, the disposal of this material raises more questions than it answers, because by throwing this material into a low-lying area, apparently the presumption is that it will get washed into the Arabian Sea. We most emphatically do not approve of this approach,” said the court.The court observed the report does not indicate whether any survey was done of the 101 "unauthorized structures" and also does not reveal if any process of eligibility was undertaken.“In no sense is this in keeping with even the letter, let alone the spirit, of the Supreme Court orders referred to above,” the court said, while listing the case for hearing on March 01.Ekta Welfare Society Vs State of Maharashtra [WRIT PETITION (L) NO. 3572 OF 2023] Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Bom) 95Click Here To Read/Download Order

Scale Of Human Displacement Beyond Imagination, Labelling People As ‘Encroachers’ & Deploying Bulldozers No Solution: Bombay High Court

Sharmeen Hakim

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