Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted interim protection in 25 cases of eviction from railway land till the end of June. The court verbally requested the railways to come up with a system that hawkers could adopt in case they were indeed found unauthorised and were evicted.
Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya clubbed 25 cases, all filed by people affected by the eviction drive on railway land. Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, representing some hawkers and residents, submitted, “We are facing cruel treatment. Suddenly a bulldozer comes, demolishes everything. But because of the court order, a few could survive. Despite court order, they have carried forward with demolition, saying this matter was not before court. Can this be the view of a democratically formed govt? Every day and night, a mass of people is facing this torture. We had to go, face, argue. Central forces and state forces pushed them out. A little girl is weeping that my school books are gone, I cannot go to school tomorrow.” Bhattacharyya submitted that the heart of the Constitution was “human dignity, meaning not just biological dignity or physical existence”.
On the judge’s question to the petitioners on the procedure that should be adopted in carrying out the eviction, Bhattacharyya said, “Maintain the balance. If you want to remove them, give them time, give them alternative places. Where do we go? Should we be out on the street with a begging bowl?”
The batch of 25 petitions included people who are occupying railway platforms, others who are occupying land adjacent to the platforms or railway tracks, some who are claiming rights to stay because they have been living there for years, and a fourth group consisting of those who were initially allowed to settle there or set up shops but are now being evicted. “I will submit on the fundamental duties. Whether a trespasser has a right to stay. Then another segregation of matter, who have commercial activities. The larger, five-judge bench of the Supreme Court says it doesn’t come under Article 21. There are people living adjacent to railway tracks. If something happens tomorrow, no passenger will come. They will come,” ASG Dhiraj Kumar Trivedi submitted.
Justice Bhattacharyya told ASG that there were three cases, which had some validity. In one, a licence fee was taken initially but stopped later and the shop owner had an establishment on railway land for nearly 30 years. In another case, a refugee, who came to Bengal in 1947, was allotted a space to conduct business on railway land, which was 1 km from the platform. All these cases pertained to railway lands in and around Ballygunge, Bamangachhi, Baruipur, Dankuni, Guma, Bongaon, Durga Nagar, Mathurapur and Jadavpur.
