Supreme Court thwarts eviction from Railway land in Haldwani

Subject :Economy

Context

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a direction of the Uttarakhand High Court to the Indian Railways and the district administration to use paramilitary forces to evict thousands of poor families occupying railway land in Haldwani district within a week.
Avocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the various affected families, said over 5,000 families were affected. Proceedings against them pertaining to the Public Premises Act were still on.

Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act

Government of India has to evict unauthorized occupants from Government accommodations under the provisions of PPE Act, 1971.
However, the eviction proceedings take unusually long time, thereby reducing the availability of Government accommodations to new incumbents.
Under the existing PPE Act,1971 as amended by PPE Amendment Act, 2019, the eviction proceeding take around 5 to 7 weeks’ time. However, it takes much longer, even years, to evict unauthorized occupants.

Highlights of the Amendment

The Bill amends the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971. The Act provides for the eviction of unauthorised occupants from public premises in certain cases.
Notice for eviction:
- The Bill adds a provision laying down the procedure for eviction from residential accommodation. It requires an estate officer (an officer of the central government) to issue a written notice to a person if he is in unauthorised occupation .
- The notice will require the person to show cause of why an eviction order should not be made against him, within three working days.
- The written notice must be fixed to a conspicuous part of the accommodation, in a prescribed manner.
Order of eviction:
- After considering the cause shown, and making any other inquiries, the estate officer will make an order for eviction. If the person fails to comply with the order, the estate officer may evict such person from the residential accommodation, and take possession of it. For this purpose, the estate officer may also use such force as necessary.
Payment of damages: If the person in unauthorised occupation of the residential accommodation challenges the eviction order passed by the estate officer in court, he will be required to pay damages for every month of such occupation.