(Video) Rajya Sabha TV (RSTV) The Big Picture: Land Encroachment & Religion

Topic: Land Encroachment & Religion

Guest:

P. K. Malhotra, (Former Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, GoI)
Shankar Aggarwal, (Former Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development GoI)
Sangram Patnaik, (Advocate, Supreme Court)

Topic Description:

The High Court of Uttarakhand has directed the State government to remove 770 religious structures built by encroaching on public places by March 23. On Wednesday, the state government sought one year time for removing such religious structures but the division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranga-nathan and Justice RC Khulbe rejected this request citing a Supreme Court’s order of 2009. In an affidavit submitted by the state government, it was stated that the check conducted in all districts on the high court directions revealed that over 700 structures were constructed on public space. Some of these have been demolished by the administration. During the previous hearing of the matter on February 26, the high court observed with dissatisfaction that the Supreme Court had issued orders in 2009 directing all the states to remove illegal religious structures built on public places and government land. Meanwhile, a division bench of the Telangana High Court last week pulled the State government for not coming up with a firm policy to deal with those encroaching vacant lands. The bench said ‘No religious structure should be treated above law’.