The Crossbill News Desk
The Supreme Court has put a temporary halt to a large-scale eviction drive being carried out by the Assam government in Uriamghat and adjoining villages of Golaghat district, directing that status quo be maintained.
The order, passed on August 22 by a bench of justices P.S. Narasimha and A.S. Chandurkar, came in response to a special leave petition filed by Congress leader Abdul Khaleq along with affected families challenging the Gauhati High Court’s refusal to grant them relief.
“Issue notice… Pending disposal of the special leave petition, the parties shall maintain status quo,” the bench said in its interim order, The Telegraph Online reported.
The petitioners had approached the apex court after the Gauhati High Court, on August 5 and again on August 18, declined to intervene against the ongoing eviction drive.
Senior advocate Chandra Uday Singh and advocate on record Adeel Ahmed, appearing for the residents, argued that the High Court had failed to protect “long-settled residents — many of whom have been in uninterrupted occupation for over seven decades, with documentary recognition by the state — from forcible eviction without due process, rehabilitation or settlement inquiry as mandated under the Assam Forest Regulation, 1891, the Forest Rights Act, 2006, and binding constitutional safeguards.”
According to the petition, the residents are permanent inhabitants of villages in Golaghat district, including No. 2 Negheribill, Gelajan, Bidyapur, Rajapukhuri, Uriamghat and nearby areas. Their forefathers settled in the region more than seventy years ago, it said, and successive generations built houses, cultivated farmland, and integrated into civic life. The plea highlighted that the families had been granted electricity connections, ration cards, Aadhaar numbers, and were consistently included in electoral rolls.
“They were granted electricity connections, ration cards, Aadhaar numbers and have been continuously enrolled in the electoral rolls of their constituency. Many were also sanctioned housing assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. These facts collectively demonstrate that the petitioners are long-settled inhabitants …” the petition stated.
The eviction drive, however, was launched on July 29 in the Rengma Reserve Forest at Uriamghat. Local reports said the state government mobilised nearly 700–800 police personnel, along with CRPF units and forest officials, and used bulldozers and excavators to clear what authorities described as encroachments spread across roughly 11,000 bighas of forest land.
According to Pratidin Time, “Over 70% of families targeted, largely from Muslim communities with a ‘Miya’ identity, have vacated, many relocating to ancestral homes in central Assam’s Nagaon and Morigaon districts, prompting concerns over potential land conflicts and unauthorised resettlement.”
With the Supreme Court’s intervention, the eviction has been put on hold until further hearing, offering temporary relief to thousands of families facing displacement.
The order, passed on August 22 by a bench of justices P.S. Narasimha and A.S. Chandurkar, came in response to a special leave petition filed by Congress leader Abdul Khaleq along with affected families challenging the Gauhati High Court’s refusal to grant them relief.
“Issue notice… Pending disposal of the special leave petition, the parties shall maintain status quo,” the bench said in its interim order, The Telegraph Online reported.
The petitioners had approached the apex court after the Gauhati High Court, on August 5 and again on August 18, declined to intervene against the ongoing eviction drive.
Senior advocate Chandra Uday Singh and advocate on record Adeel Ahmed, appearing for the residents, argued that the High Court had failed to protect “long-settled residents — many of whom have been in uninterrupted occupation for over seven decades, with documentary recognition by the state — from forcible eviction without due process, rehabilitation or settlement inquiry as mandated under the Assam Forest Regulation, 1891, the Forest Rights Act, 2006, and binding constitutional safeguards.”
According to the petition, the residents are permanent inhabitants of villages in Golaghat district, including No. 2 Negheribill, Gelajan, Bidyapur, Rajapukhuri, Uriamghat and nearby areas. Their forefathers settled in the region more than seventy years ago, it said, and successive generations built houses, cultivated farmland, and integrated into civic life. The plea highlighted that the families had been granted electricity connections, ration cards, Aadhaar numbers, and were consistently included in electoral rolls.
“They were granted electricity connections, ration cards, Aadhaar numbers and have been continuously enrolled in the electoral rolls of their constituency. Many were also sanctioned housing assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. These facts collectively demonstrate that the petitioners are long-settled inhabitants …” the petition stated.
The eviction drive, however, was launched on July 29 in the Rengma Reserve Forest at Uriamghat. Local reports said the state government mobilised nearly 700–800 police personnel, along with CRPF units and forest officials, and used bulldozers and excavators to clear what authorities described as encroachments spread across roughly 11,000 bighas of forest land.
According to Pratidin Time, “Over 70% of families targeted, largely from Muslim communities with a ‘Miya’ identity, have vacated, many relocating to ancestral homes in central Assam’s Nagaon and Morigaon districts, prompting concerns over potential land conflicts and unauthorised resettlement.”
With the Supreme Court’s intervention, the eviction has been put on hold until further hearing, offering temporary relief to thousands of families facing displacement.
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