SHEESH RAM MEMORIAL TRUST Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The order of this Court, which is said to be the basis for undertaking the exercise of demolition, is the interlocutory order passed in Writ Petition (PIL) No.199 of 2016 dtd. 15/6/2018, whereby the District Administration was directed to remove all encroachments made on both the banks of river Ganges, as well as public roads and public paths in Haridwar town, by issuing four weeks' notice to the occupants who had encroached upon government land/forest land; and two weeks' notice to the persons who had encroached upon public roads/public paths by permitting them to establish their possession on the encroached land/unauthorized construction by way of sale-deeds, title-deeds or any order passed by the competent authority in their favour while putting them into possession of the property; and a special derive be launched to evict the unauthorized occupants near Chandi ghat/Chandi bridge opposite VIP ghat.

(2.) Under the guise of this interim order, a public notice appears to have been issued; and the structures raised by petitioners were demolished. All that is stated in the counter-affidavit, filed on behalf of the State Government, is that a public notice was issued; and, thereafter, the exercise of demolition was undertaken. The interim order of the Division Bench required four weeks' notice to be given to the occupants.

(3.) The notice, which the authorities were required to issue, were individual notices to each occupant, and not a public notice. Even persons, who have allegedly encroached upon government land, can only be evicted therefrom in accordance with law, that too after putting them on notice, and after giving them an opportunity of being heard.