Bombay High Court calls for considered approach to address encroachment issue

The Bombay High Court has sought information from the Western Railway, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on their rehabilitation policy for those who are being displaced due to the ongoing demolition of unauthorized structures on railway lands in Mumbai.

A division bench comprising Justice Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale has directed the authorities to explain if they have a rehabilitation policy or system in place, and what are the eligibility criteria. The court also stated that labelling people as "encroachers" and displacing them is not the solution to the problem.

The move came after the Ekta Welfare Society, a Mumbai-based organization, filed a petition challenging the eviction and demolition notices issued to its residents by railway authorities as they were encroaching on its property. As per the Western Railway, 101 unauthorised structures have already been demolished till February 7.

The court in its order said that the Western Railway and other authorities had not followed the directions given by the Supreme Court in December 2021 while conducting such demolition drives.

The Supreme Court had directed the authorities concerned to record the identity of the occupants of the structure before starting the process of eviction and removal of structures, for the consideration of rehabilitation. If the local government has any rehabilitation scheme, the affected persons should be allowed to apply for the same if eligible, the apex court had said.

The high court said the demolition report submitted by the Western Railway did not indicate whether any survey was done of the 101 structures before demolition, which was against the SC order. It also said that the notices issued to the occupants of the petitioner society's structures did not point out any rehabilitation scheme or any requirements of eligibility or how these are to be met or within what time.

The court took exception to the disposal of debris generated from the demolition drive, saying that it raises more questions than it answers, as by throwing the material into a low-lying area, the presumption is that it will get washed into the Arabian Sea.

The bench also said that no further demolition is to be carried out in contravention of the SC order anywhere on Western Railway lands in Mumbai and posted the matter for further hearing on March 1.

The encroachment issue is a serious problem in Mumbai, and it is a problem of human displacement, the court said. Sometimes, the scale of displacement is beyond the imagination, and it has to be addressed in a more considered fashion than by merely deploying bulldozers on the site.

The court was also unclear if the Western Railway had taken up the matter of rehabilitation with the MMRDA or the BMC, but added that at this stage, it was not indicating that the MMRDA or the BMC was necessarily bound to rehabilitate those ousted in the Western Railway's encroachment removal drives.