The Supreme Court will hear a plea challenging the Uttarakhand High Court's plea directing the removal of encroachments from 29 acres of railway land in Haldwani on Thursday.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices S A Nazeer and P S Narasimha posted the matter for hearing after advocate Prashant Bhushan mentioned the matter.
Bhushan submitted that the case -- of more than 5,000 houses in Haldwani being demolished -- is similar to the matter scheduled to be heard on Thursday.
The apex court agreed to tag the matter and posted the matter for hearing on Thursday.
Earlier, some Haldwani residents had moved the top court on the issue.
What is happening in Haldwani?
Starting Sunday, around 4,000 families living in unauthorised colonies near Haldwani railway station started receiving eviction notices with a 7-day period to vacate the area, following an order from the Uttarakhand High Court.
According to Nainital district officials, a total of 4,365 encroachments will be removed from the area. The residents, some of whom have been living there for decades, have been protesting against the court order.
On December 20, the Uttarakhand High Court ordered the demolition of constructions over encroached railway land at Banbhoolpura in Haldwani. Following this, the railway officials said they have begun the process of demolishing the houses and other structures built on the 2.2 km strip of railway land.
The state government has said that they have no say in the matter as the land belonged to that of the Railways and the High Court ruled the order in favour of the Railways after hearing all the parties in a case which went on for almost a decade.
