In a major relief to lakhs of farmers of Himachal Pradesh facing danger of eviction from encroached state government land, the Supreme Court of India has stayed the decision of Himachal Pradesh High Court of declaring Section 163 A of the Himachal Pradesh Land Tenancy Act, ‘unconstitutional.’
A double bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court comprising of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Bipin Chander Negi had struck down Section 163-A of the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue Act, 1952, which empowered the State Government to frame rules for regularization of encroachments on government land, as ‘ unconstitutional’ sometime back .
Dr Onkar Shad , HP state CPM leader , who is petitioner in the case said , “ The matter came for hearing before the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta on Friday (September 19) , the Supreme Court has ordered to maintain a status quo on a petition seeking intervention in the matter and directed to tag the application with the main Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed in the case, giving a big relief to lakhs of farmers facing HP High Court’s order to evict them from the encroached land and also to cut down fruit bearing trees throughout the state from the land”.
Dr. Shad said, “I had filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India through Advocate Pranjal Kishor to safeguard the interest of a large number of famers of the state; as informed by my Advocate, the Supreme Court has directed to maintain a status quo on the High Court order and comment later after getting the copy of the Court order,” he added.
