High court orders removal of encroachments from all highways in Himachal

A division bench comprising Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Virender Singh passed these orders on a petition filed by Harnam Singh pertaining to illegal encroachment on highways

The Himachal Pradesh high court has directed the state government to remove all the encroachments from National, state and other highways within four weeks.

The high court has also directed the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police of the concerned District to render all necessary help, including adequate police help at the time of removal of encroachments (HT File)

A division bench comprising Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Virender Singh passed these orders on a petition filed by Harnam Singh pertaining to illegal encroachment on highways.

The petitioner submitted that he belongs to a downtrodden family. Since the income of the petitioner was not sufficient to meet the requirements and needs of the family, therefore, he encroached upon National Highway and raised a dhaba about 8-9 years ago, which does not create any hindrance to the free flow of traffic. As such, he prayed not to demolish his dhaba. It was further averred by the petitioner that the respondent may be directed to take action against all the persons running roadside dhabas, and only then action be taken against him to give at least similar treatment to similarly situated persons.

The court in its earlier order observed that the petitioner alone cannot be singled out as there are other encroachments on national highways and directed respondents to ensure that all the encroachments are removed.

In compliance with the orders of the court, the HPPWD engineer-in-chief has filed an affidavit stating therein that there are as many as 472 cases of encroachments that have been detected on the acquired width of the road. It has been further submitted that encroachers could not be evicted for want of demarcation by the revenue agency.

However, during the course of the hearing, the court wondered why the respondent department is waiting for demarcation to be conducted when admittedly, as per its own case, the encroachment has been made on the acquired width of the road. The court observed that it is more than settled that all lands, which are not the property of any person or not vested in local authorities, belong to the government. All unoccupied lands are the property of the government unless any person can establish his right or title to any such land.

The court has also directed the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police of the concerned District to render all necessary help, including adequate police help at the time of removal of encroachments.