By Kritika- BALLB First Year
Does justice demand only to uphold the law in its letter and spirit? Is it not concerned with the impact of the judicial decisions on the concerned people?
These were the questions that came to my mind after reading an order dated 7 June 2021 by the honorable Supreme Court, by which the court ordered to evict over 1 lakh residents of Khori village in Faridabad.[1] The SC concluded that as Khori Gaon Basti is an encroachment on the Aravalli Forest land, so it is right to demolish over 6,500 homes and displace more than 5,000 pregnant and lactating women and over 20,000 minors.[2] But the honourable Supreme Court wrongly assumed these residents to be “encroachers” of land as in reality they are the “buyers” of this disputed land. The majority of the families residing in this area are from lower-economic backgrounds and have built these houses with their entire life’s savings.[3]
The priority has been given to displacing these poor people who have nowhere to go and demolishing their houses, over providing them with a concrete rehabilitation policy.
But what’s their fault in all this? And why are they being forced to part away with the houses that they build from their hard-earned money without getting even a penny in return?
Was it their fault that the government authorities didn’t notice a locality that is over 50 years old?[4]
Or was it their fault that they have been sold these little parcels of land by dubious land dealers through the power of attorney documents?[5]
These homes surely didn’t emerge overnight, there is a government school and a government park in that area, even their identity cards have the address proof of this “encroached” area[6], which clearly shows that the government was well aware of its existence rather it has recognized the area to a large extent by building school and park here by utilizing public funds.[7] So, why do these people alone have to bear the brunt?
It is indeed very much important to save the environment and the forests of the country but is it necessary to be done by displacing so many families? And even if it is extremely important to demolish all the houses, don’t these people deserve an appropriate rehabilitation policy, after all, they have a fundamental Right to Shelter? The concerned authorities should have paid attention to the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic due to which many have lost their jobs and losing the roof over their head in such times can be devastating and many of them may come on the road.
Can conserving nature by evicting around 10,000 families and ignoring their miseries, be really termed as just and fair?
Foot Notes
[1] Himanshi Dahiya, Khori Village Eviction Order Leaves Residents Crying for Help, THE QUINT (14 July, 2021), Available at: Ground Report | Where Will We Go? Khori Village Eviction Order Leaves 1 Lakh Residents Helpless (thequint.com), (Last visited on July 25,2021). [2] Manju Menon & Ishita Chatterjee, Why the Haryana Govt Must Not Evict One Lakh Residents of Khori Gaon, THE WIRE (17 June, 2021), Available at: Why the Haryana Govt Must Not Evict One Lakh Residents of Khori Gaon (thewire.in), (Last visited on July 25,2021). [3] Ibid. [4] Shruti Kakkar, Supreme Court issues notice in plea seeking stay on Khori Basti Demolition, LAWBEAT (19 July, 2021), Available at: LawBeat | Supreme Court issues notice in plea seeking stay on Khori Basti Demolition, (Last visited on July 25, 2021). [5] See supra note 2. [6] Ibid. [7] See supra note 5.