The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the removal of encroachments from railway land near Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura for 10 days. A notice has been issued to Railways seeking its reply and now the matter will be heard after a week. The petitioners have claimed that they have been settled there for more than 100 years. The railway began demolition action against these people settled on both sides of its tracks.
About The Case
The rail line connecting Mathura to Vrindavan is currently meter gauge. Rail service has been closed on this for the last several years. People have built pucca houses on both sides of the line and now Railways is upgrading it to a broad gauge line. Thrice, Railways gave notice to the people living there to vacate their land, but when nothing happened, the Railways began bulldozing the encroachments.
Petitioner's Claim
Yakub Shah, the petitioner in the case and a resident of Nai Basti, Mathura, has claimed that people have been settled at the place for more than 100 years. He further claimed that his petition against the encroachment drive is pending in the lower court and the Allahabad High Court, but the railways already started running bulldozers.
What happened In Supreme Court?
Senior advocate Prashanto Sen appeared before a bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose, Sanjay Kumar and SVN Bhatti. He said that now only around 70 houses are left from demolition. He added that if this is not stopped immediately, then the hearing will become futile. After discussing among themselves for some time, the judges ordered to maintain the status quo in the matter for 10 days. The court has asked the Railways to respond to the petition within seven days. The matter will now be heard next week.
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