Rajasthan High Court Stays Anti-Encroachment Drive In Jalore

The Rajasthan High Court on Friday stayed an anti-encroachment drive in a village in Jalore district after petitioners submitted their land deeds, reversing its May 7 directions to remove structures from a 35-acre piece of pasture land there.

Residents of Odwada on Thursday put up a resistance when officials of the district administration and police reached the village to remove the "encroachments", a move that was criticised by opposition party Congress in the state.

Justice Vinit Kumar Mathur granted the stay order after the petitioners submitted their land deeds (pattas) in court.

"Despite there being the requisite documents issued by the competent authorities of the state government for holding the possession of the land, the petitioners are being dispossessed without taking appropriate steps following the law", the petitioner's counsel Shyam Sunder Paliwal said.

Notably, in compliance with the court's previous order, the Ahore administration conducted an anti-encroachment drive on the 35 acres of pasture land of the Odwada village on Thursday with heavy police force.  As per the high court's order, a total of 342 residential areas were classified as encroachments.  On Thursday, fences and boundary walls were removed from the Oran land and did not include any residential houses.  Around 198 encroachments were scheduled to be removed on Friday. Issuing the notices, the court directed the AAG Rajesh Panwar that petitioners shall not be dispossessed from the pattas or sanad of land issued in their favour of the land in question.

The exercise garnered criticism as leaders from the opposition including ex-Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. He questioned the drive to remove the people, claiming they had been living there for generations holding valid documents.

Local MLA Chhagan Singh Rajpurohit also met Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma on Thursday and spoke to him regarding this issue. He also issued an order to suspend the anti-encroachment drive till Saturday.  Talking to the media, the Jalore District Magistrate Pooja Parth said that the exercise had been carried out in compliance with the court's directions and claimed that action was taken against those who had built boundary walls covering land pieces and not against the residential units.

She said that the legal procedure had been adopted before the exercise and all the encroachers were given notices in advance, informing them about the exercise.

"We are already conducting a survey and will provide support as per government schemes for landless people. The CEO of Zila Parishad has also ordered an inquiry into the matter," Parth said.

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