New Delhi, January 17
Hundreds of Sikh families settled in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttaranchal have moved the Supreme Court, alleging that they are being illegally evicted by the state government from the land allotted to them.

In a petition moved by the farmers through the Guru Nanak Mission International (GNMI), they pleaded that neither the political establishments in the state and at the Centre, nor courts below had come to their rescue even as the issue of their eviction by the Uttaranchal Government had been raised by them with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and senior CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

Taking cognisance of the special leave petition of the GNMI, the apex court yesterday directed that the 251 Sikh families facing eviction orders should not be disturbed from their land and status quo should be maintained.

The petition was moved after the Uttaranchal High Court had refused to grant stay on eviction of these families belonging to Dohrivakil, Kharmasa, Panchwala and Ramnagar villages in Kashipur tehsil.

They were settled there in phases between 1965 and 1970.

The interim direction against eviction was issued by a Bench comprising Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Mr Justice C.K. Thakker and Mr Justice R.V. Raveendran, which issued notices to the Uttaranchal Government, seeking its reply.

The high court had passed an order on December 23 last, declining stay, while admitting the GNMI’s petition.

Senior advocate M.N. Krishnamani, appearing for the GNMI, told the court that of the 550 Sikh families settled in Dohrivakil, Kharmasa, Panchwala and Ramnagar villages, 251 were directed by the Uttaranchal Government on July 13, 2004, to vacate the land despite the fact that they were vested with “bhumidhar” rights by the undivided Uttar Pradesh Government.

Describing the direction for eviction as illegal, discriminatory and arbitrary, the GNMI said the high court had failed to take into account the fact that the Additional District Magistrate of Nainital, vide his order dated May 26, 1995, had protected these Sikh farmers by issuing an order not to evict them from the land in their possession.

It further said the revenue records of the 251 families showed that the government had allotted them “khasra” numbers for the 441.22 hectares in their possession.

The GNMI stated that it had submitted representations to the Prime Minister, the Congress President, Uttaranchal Chief Minister Narain Dutt Tiwari and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on the issue, but none had taken any positive action in this regard so far.