OKHLA FACTORY OWNERS ASSOCIATION (REGD.) AND ANR. Vs. THE GOVT. OF NATIONAL CAPITAL TERRITORY OF DELHI AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BENEVOLENCE in administration is a necessity but this benevolence has to be balanced against the rights of the residents of a town specially when dealing with one commodity which can never increase which is land.

(2.) THE validity and legality of the policy of the respondents for removal and relocation of jhuggi dwellers who squat on Government land unauthorisedly and are ultimately allotted parts of land acquired for planned development of Delhi has to be decided in the present proceedings. This became a necessity in view of the fact that the land was being acquired under the provisions of Land Acquisition Act for planned development of Delhi at public expense for public purpose. This very land was being utilised to relocate persons who had squatted and trespassed on public land and refused to move from the original place. In order to clear those areas such persons were provided land which had been so acquired.

(3.) IN this public interest litigation the problem arose since the squatters and encroachers on public land had to be removed who could not be so removed in view of the policy of the respondents requiring the land to be first made available to such persons for their removal and relocation as a pre -requisite to their being moved from the areas where they had squatted. In the proceedings on 13.8.2001 the Slum and JJ Department of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi stated that the removal and relocation of Jhuggis was confined only to relocate the Jhuggi Jhonpri dwellers provided the land owning agencies bear the cost of relocation as per the approved policy. Whenever the land encroached upon is required by the land owning agency a request is made to the Slum and JJ Department to carry put a joint survey of the area in question, to determine the number of Jhuggi that are existent. The most essential step for implementation in the scheme is the requirement of providing requisite land by the State Government or the Delhi Development Authority, as the case may be, which land is then developed by the Slum and JJ Department. Such relocation has not been possible in large numbers because land cannot be manufactured and increased and that itself is a limiting factor.