No political speech in court: SC to Assam LoP | India News

NEW DELHI: “India has become a cruel nation as it uses bulldozers to raze houses of alleged encroachers without prior determination of squatters on public land and without serving prior notice,” Assam leader of opposition Debabrata Saikia told the Supreme Court on Friday while seeking a national guideline for removal of encroachments without arbitrary use of bulldozers.

“Do not give a political speech in court… Don’t put premium on encroachment of public land,” said a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, stopping petitioner Debabrata Saikia’s counsel from giving a pan-India colour to his case, which was adjudicated by the HC and delivered a judgment in January this year.
The CJI-led bench said, “If it is such a live issue for you (Saikia), why did the leader of opposition wait for eight months to move the Supreme Court? If you are so concerned, why wait this long?”

The Congress MLA, who is the son of ex-Assam CM Hiteshwar Saikia and represents Nazira constituency, was questioning the September 2021 drive against encroachers by Assam government in Dhalpur and Gorukhuti in Darrang district and highlighting the flaws in their rehabilitation.
Through senior advocate C U Singh, Saikia said the alleged encroachments were removed in September 2021 in a military-like operation by the state government which served the eviction notices at midnight and sent bulldozers at 7 am to raze the houses. “Those who have papers for their houses lost the documents in the demolition drive,” he said, alleging that the relief and rehabilitation scheme has not been fully implemented yet.
When Saikia’s counsel repeatedly pleaded with the court to “see the larger issue” and pleaded that the apex court must step in to stop India from “becoming a cruel nation by using bulldozers to clear encroachment”, the CJI said, “Does that mean you put a premium on encroachment of public land? Then you will allege that public projects, which are to be set up on those encroached public land, are not getting implemented.”
The bench refused to entertain the Assam LoP’s plea to examine the request for a pan-India guideline on removal of encroachments on public land and asked him to move the Gauhati HC if he found certain issues in rehabilitation of 700 families evicted from Dhalpur and Gorukhuti. It said as per the HC judgment, 600 families have been rehabilitated and the state was given six months to resettle the remaining 100 families.
In the high court, the state had said they would resettle the evicted people provided they proved their citizenship of India. Saikia’s counsel Talha Abdul Rahman had said, “You cannot just evict people from their homes on suspicion of being foreigners and later make their rehabilitation contingent on proof of citizenship.”