Srinagar: The High Court today asked the J&K government to evict all the unauthorized occupants in the newly constructed complex at Transit camp Vessu in Kulgam district
Dismissing a string of petitions by some Kashmiri Pandits, Justice Sanjeev Kumar also directed the concerned police authorities in the area to register an FIR, against the petitioners for having entered upon and occupied the under construction quarters at Migrant Colony, Vessu, illegally.
“The respondents (authorities concerned) shall take requisite steps to evict all the unauthorized occupants of the new residential quarters in the newly constructed complex at Transit camp Vessu,” the court said, adding, “This is so directed as the petitioners do not dispute that they have entered the public premises without any authority”.
However the court asked the authorities to provide a week’s time to the petitioners to vacate the premises on their own. In case they fail to do so, the court asked the authorities to evict them by using as “much force as may be required to accomplish violence free eviction of the petitioners.”
The petitioners had called in question a communication by Tehsildar Relief & Rehabilitation (Migrants), Srinagar, dated 17 January 2021, directing the SHO Police Station Qazigund, Kulgam to register an FIR against the petitioners for having entered upon and occupied the under construction quarters at Migrant Colony, Vessu, illegally.
They had sought directions to the authorities to adopt a reasonable criteria for allotment of accommodation to the migrant employees appointed under Prime Minister’s Special Package for rehabilitation and return of the migrants to the Valley. They had voiced their grievance against the manner in which the authorities have made the allotment of 200 and odd units that have come up at Transit Camp Vessu, District Kulgam.
In reply to the petitions, the Department of Relief and Rehabilitation submitted that petitioners, who are already having pre-fab accommodation at Transmit Camp Vessu, have “illegally and unauthorisedly entered into the under construction quarters and are, therefore, rank trespassers.”
They are not only required to be evicted from their unauthorized occupation, but are also required to be proceeded for committing criminal trespass over the public property, the department said.
It justified the communication directing the SHO, P/S Qazigund to register a formal FIR against the petitioners and others, who have taken law into their own hands and committed the offence of criminal trespass.
The JK PCC in its reply had submitted that being an executing agency, it has constructed the Government quarters meant for migrant employees appointed under Prime Minister’s package and, therefore, ostensibly there is no grievance raised by the petitioners in their petition against it.
