SHIMLA: The Supreme Court has stayed a Himachal Pradesh High Court order concerning the removal of decades-old illegal encroachments from government land in the state. During the preliminary hearing of an appeal filed by the state government, the apex court ordered that a status quo be maintained regarding these encroachments.
The state government had moved the top court against the High Court’s ruling in the Poonam Gupta case, which had struck down the policy aimed at regularising illegal encroachments on government land.
Previously, the High Court division bench had accepted a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Poonam Gupta. In its judgment, the High Court had directed the state government to ensure the removal of all encroachments on government land in accordance with the law. It had ordered that appropriate proceedings against the encroachers be initiated and taken to their logical conclusion as quickly as possible, specifically on or before February 28, 2026.
The High Court had observed that good governance involves the strict implementation of existing laws dealing with encroachments. It noted that policies framed to legalise illegal activities encourage dishonesty and lawbreaking. Terming the government’s policy to condone such law violations as arbitrary, the High Court stated that the state was violating Article 14 of the Constitution by treating unequal people equally.
Furthermore, the High Court had declared Section 163-A of the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue Act patently arbitrary and unconstitutional. Consequently, it struck down Section 163-A and the rules framed under it. Through this section, the state government had acquired powers to regularise encroachments, a provision that did not exist in the original legislation.
Given the extensive scale of encroachments on government land in Himachal Pradesh, the High Court had also suggested that the state government consider amending its laws related to “criminal encroachment” to bring them in line with state amendments made by Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Odisha.
Significantly, under the state’s regularisation policy issued in 2002, applications were invited from individuals who had encroached upon government land. By August 15, 2002, a total of 1,67,339 applications were received, seeking the regularisation of encroachments across 24,198 acres of government land.
Later in 2017, the government had also published draft rules in the official gazette to regularise encroachments on government land up to 5 bighas. However, during the hearing of petitions challenging these draft rules, the state government had clarified that it currently had no proposal before it to regularise such illegal encroachments.
