Advocates:
['RAJEEV SINGH BISHT', '', 'KURBAN ALI', 'DEEPAK DANU', 'LUBHNA', 'SHUMYLA ZAFARI', 'AHRAR BAIG', 'NISHAT INTEZAR', 'M K RAY', 'M S BHANDARI', 'VINAY SINGH CHAUHAN', 'UNNATI PANT', 'S BHUPENDRA SINGH', 'SANPREET SINGH AJMANI', 'SEEMA DHINGRA', 'PIYUSH GARG', 'MOHD UMAR', 'NAVNISH NEGI', 'ASTT S G', '', 'LALIT SHARMA CENTRAL GOVT S C', 'GOPAL K VERMA', 'C S C', 'SANDEEP TIWARIVINAY BHATT']

• Point 1 (!)
• Point 2 (!)
• Point 3 (!)

How to determine whether the land in Haldwani Khas is Nazul land under Nazul Rules?

What is the status and enforceability of long-standing leases claimed over Nazul land near a railway station?

What are the powers and procedures for eviction of unauthorized occupants from railway land under the Public Premises Act and the Railways Act?

HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL

Writ Petition (PIL) No. 30 of 2022

Ravi Shankar Joshi

..…Petitioner

Versus

Union of India and others

.… Respondents

Along with

Intervention Application No. 3 of 2022

Intervention Application No. 5 of 2022

Intervention Application No. 6 of 2022

Intervention Application No. 7 of 2022

Intervention Application No. 8 of 2022

Intervention Application No. 9 of 2022

Intervention Application No. 10 of 2022

Intervention Application No. 11 of 2022

Intervention Application No. 13 of 2022

Intervention Application No. 15 of 2022

Present :

Mr. Rajeev Singh Bisht, Advocate, for the petitioner.

Mr. Ahrar Baig, Mr. Gopal K. Verma, Mr. Sanpreet Singh Ajmani, Mr. Rahul Bhatt, Mr.

Piyush Garg, Mr. Sandeep Tiwari, Mr. Kurban Ali, Mr. Vinay Bhatt, Mr. M.K. Ray,

Advocates, for the Interverners.

Mr. S.N. Babulkar, Advocate General, assisted by Mr. C.S. Rawat, Chief Standing

Counsel, Mr. Ajay Singh Bisht, Addl. C.S.C. and Mr. Gajendra Tripathi, Brief Holder,

for the State of Uttarakhand.

Mr. V.K. Kaparuwan, Mr. Rajesh Sharma, and Mr. Lalit Sharma, Standing Counsel for

the Union of India.

Judgment Reserved : 01.11.2022

Judgment Delivered :20.12.2022

JUDGEMENT

Coram : Hon’ble Sharad Kumar Sharma, J.

Hon’ble Ramesh Chandra Khulbe, J.

Per Hon’ble Sharad Kumar Sharma, J.

The instant Writ Petition (PIL) deals with a very

intrinsic and a sensitive issue, whereby, relief has been

modulated in the PIL, for seeking writ of mandamus for

removing the unauthorised occupants from the railway land,

2

adjoining Haldwani Railway Station, commonly called as

Gaffur Basti. Despite of best of our efforts to be precise in

adjudication, but owing to the intricate legal and factual

issues involved from the following perspectives:-

i.

The historical background,

ii.

The individual actual rights and,

iii.

The legal issues,

We are bound to have a detailed deliberation.

All would require a detailed scrutiny, before

arriving at any plausible conclusion for adjudicating the

various contentions, which had been agitated by the

learned counsel for the parties to the PIL, as well as the

various

resident

interveners,

whose

respective

applications for intervention has to be dealt with

individually.

2.

The first aspect of historical background, its

hereby summarized as under :-

3.

The township of Haldwani was initially, as back

as in early 1800, was geographically a non existing township.

It emerged, as to be a gradually a developing township with

the following historical backdrops.

i.

In 1815, the then East India Company, had waged a

war with the Bhotias of Nepal, which continued

unabated for quite a sufficient long period.

ii.

In 1816, as a consequence of settlement by way of a

treaty, which was arrived at between the Nepalies

and the East India Company, called as Sagauli

3

Treaty. It was executed between the King of Nepal

and that with the East India Company, resulting into

annexing of the territories of Garhwal and Kumaon

Region, as it exists today, with the East India

Company.

iii.

As a consequence of the Sagauli Treaty of 1816, the

East India Company, for the purposes of annexing

the aforesaid territory from the Kingdom of Nepal,

as it then was, had paid a sum of Rs.2 lacs for

annexation of the Garhwal and Kumaon Regions, as

it now stands bifurcated, in these two wider

topographical divisions.

iv.

The historical backdrop reveals, that the territory of

Haldwani Khas, for the first time, had acquired its

territorial existence, when it was brought into

existence by its founder, Mr. Trail in the year 1834.

v.

The basic objective of giving this territory as a

nomenclature of Haldwani Khas, was then that it had

a basic political intention of the East India Company,

to utilize the said territory, as to be an area, which

was intended to be uti