SC asks forest dept to expedite process of re-claiming encroached land

The Supreme Court Monday asked the Delhi government's forest department to expedite the process of taking over around 32,237 bigha land which has been encroached.

The forest department told a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur that they have not yet received the survey map from the revenue department but they would start the process of demarcation of such land.

The bench, also comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, was told by an advocate assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the Delhi sealing matter, that around 172 bigha (unit for measuring land) in Aya Nagar here was also encroached.

 

The court asked the forest department to proceed on the basis of the map which they have saying, "if the revenue department is not giving you the map, will you do nothing?".

To this, the counsel appearing for forest department said, "We will do it as per our forest map".

The bench said: "It is not necessary for the forest department to indefinitely wait for the map from the revenue department."

It also asked the forest department to take back the encroached land of around 477 bigha in Bhati village here.

Besides, the bench dealt with the issues related to encroachment of water bodies and status of ground water in Delhi.

The court asked Delhi government and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to file their affidavits within three weeks on the issue of management of ground water in the national capital.

It also dealt with Delhi government's application seeking its nod to issue a notification with regard to 279 roads under mixed-use guidelines of Master Plan of Delhi-2021.

The counsel appearing for Delhi government said that a survey of roads was conducted by the municipal corporation of Delhi in 2007.

"There are two things. Survey was conducted in 2007. More than 10 years have gone by. Things have changed on the ground in these 10 years. We wanted a fresh survey to be done so that we know what is the situation today," the bench observed.

The Delhi government's counsel referred to the Master Plan of Delhi-2021 and said no more roads could be notified except those which were surveyed in February 2007 by the civic agency.

The amicus told the court that around 2,100 roads were notified by the government earlier and those were under challenge before the apex court.

He said that several roads, which could not have been notified, have been notified and without providing amenities like parking, no roads could be notified.

"There is total chaos on the roads. Pollution is there. The Supreme Court has been passing orders on pollution and congestion of roads. They have no space. This application should not be allowed," the amicus said.

The bench also observed that laws made in this regard may be good but what was happening on the ground was totally different.

"All these problems which we are facing would not have been there if the laws were implemented properly," it said.

The bench said that reports of the monitoring committee on sealing which deals with notification of roads earlier in Delhi be placed before it for consideration after three weeks.

The apex court had earlier taken serious note of the encroachments in Delhi and had said it was a "matter of great distress" that 2,280.43 kilometres of roads, streets and footpaths were encroached upon in the national capital.

The observation by the bench had come after it was informed that 844.33 kms, 811.01 kms and 601.2 kms of encroached roads and streets were cleared by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and those in South and East Delhi respectively as on August 31.

The bench had made it clear that once the special task force (STF), constituted on April 25 following the court's order to oversee enforcement of laws on illegal constructions here, clears the encroachments, the statutory authority would have to ensure that there was no more encroachment in the area.

The top court is dealing with the issue related to validity of the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006 and subsequent legislations which protect unauthorised construction from being sealed.