Petition to be heard again on January 31n
Says blanket order will benefit land grabbers
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 20: Supreme Court of India today flatly refused to stay a circular issued by the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir directing all the Deputy Commissioners to remove encroachments on State land including Roshni and Kahcharai land by end of current month with the observation that blanket order will benefit the encroachers.
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The circular issued by the Commissioner/Secretary to the Government of Union Territory of J&K, Revenue Department was challenged by Abdul Rashid and others before the Supreme Court on certain grounds.
However, a bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice M R Shah and Justice CT Ravi Kumar, after hearing counsel for the petitioner and Advocate on Record for the J&K Government, preferred not to pass any order today but the bench orally asked the Union Territory not to demolish the houses.
“We are not passing any order today. You instruct them orally not to demolish the houses. But we will not grant a general stay…. others should not get benefit”, the bench orally told the Advocate on Record of J&K Government. On this, the counsel appearing for the petitioner argued that many tribals are residing on the land and took the court through the reliefs prayed for.
However, the Supreme Court bench said, in the open court, “if the stay is granted then it will benefit land grabbers also”. The counsel appearing for the Union Territory clarified that the circular is mainly focused on the Roshni land and questioned the locus of the applicants.
“The application was served on me yesterday. It does not even mention that the applicants live there”, he pointed out, adding that the land only had shops and such establishments. Now, the Supreme Court has adjourned the matter till January 31, 2023.
As reported exclusively by EXCELSIOR in its edition dated January 19, 2023, the Government has already made it clear that while big encroachers will be targeted during the anti-encroachment drive launched across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the farmers, landless people and small commercial establishments will be spared and clear instructions in this regard have been issued at all the levels in the administration.
It is pertinent to mention here that most of the State land under the encroachment was covered under the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001 popularly known as Roshni Scheme and ownership rights were conferred upon the occupants under its garb.
However, in 2020, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court held the Jammu and Kashmir State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act 2001 as completely unconstitutional. Thereafter, review petitions were filed against the judgment including by the J&K Government.
In its stand before the Division Bench of the J&K High Court in the review petition, the Government of the Union Territory through review petition has already taken a stand that the farmers, landless people and small commercial establishments will be spared and clear instructions in this regard have been issued at all the levels in the administration.
As per the circular issued by the Government, not only that State land whose ownership rights were conferred illegally under the Roshni Scheme, even those patches which were illegally grabbed after the enactment of the Act will be evicted from the encroachers.
It is worthwhile to mention here that even lists of big encroachers have been prepared by the Revenue Department of J&K Government and huge chunk of encroached land has already been retrieved from the encroachers in the length and breadth of the Union Territory.
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