Allahabad High Court to examine allegations of encroachment on defence land in Ayodhya

The Allahabad High Court recently initiated a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case to examine allegations that there were encroachments on land handed over to the Indian Army in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh [Suo Moto In Re Protection Of Defence Land At Ayodhya]..An advocate from Ayodhya had initially filed a PIL petition complaining of such unauthorised occuption on defence land and the failure of civil or district authorities to address it.A Bench of Justices Rajan Roy and Om Prakash Shukla, however, decided to dispose of the lawyer's PIL plea after it was informed that a coordinate Bench of the High Court had disposed of a similar petition by the same litigant.Instead, the Court decided to further examine the allegations after registering a suo motu PIL in the matter."We, therefore, dispose of this petition (filed by the lawyer) with a direction to the Registry to register a Suo Moto Public Interest Litigation in the matter styled as In Re: Protection of Defence Land at Ayodhya and after registering it the said Public Interest Litigation be placed before the appropriate Bench," the Court said in an April 22 order..Earlier, in November 2023, a coordinate Bench of the High Court had disposed of a PIL petition filed by the said lawyer on the same issue."We make it clear that the State land as entrusted to the Ministry of Defence cannot be allowed to be encroached upon or dissipated otherwise in derogation of law. With this direction, the instant P.I.L. is disposed of," the Court's 2023 order had said. .A second plea filed earlier this year by the same lawyer with similar concerns came up before the Bench of Justices Roy and Shukla on April 22. While opposing this PIL, the Ayodhya Development Authority submitted that the lawyer had a criminal history as he was accused in four criminal cases. Another petition filed by him had been dismissed by the High Court on May 25, 2023 in view of this history, the authority's counsel added. The counsel representing the petitioner-lawyer countered that he has since been acquitted in most of these cases. Nevertheless, the Bench found it appropriate to dispose of the lawyer's PIL. The lawyer was also directed to disclose the May 2023 order in any PIL filed by him in future. .Notably, the Court decided to look into the allegations of Defence Ministry land encroachment by registering a suo motu PIL which was thereafter heard on April 24.During this hearing, the State government's counsel, advocate Nishant Shukla, informed the land in question was handed over for use by the Indian Army for a period of five years by a January 20, 2021 notification. He added, however, that the title of the land has not been transferred to the Defence Ministry. He further informed that even prior to the 2021 notification, there were persons occupying the land. These persons continue to occupy the said land and there has been no subsequent illegal encroachment, the Court was told. The Court is yet to hear the Defence Ministry's response in the matter. Senior Advocate and Deputy Solicitor General of India, SB Pandey, assisted by advocate Varun Pandey, took time to get instructions from the Defence Ministry. The Court was also told that certain residents of the land wished to file an intervention application. The matter will be heard after three weeks. .Advocates Nishant Mishra, Akhilesh Kumar Pandey and Dinesh Kumar Mishra represented the lawyer who had initially filed the PIL petition on the issue. Additional Solicitor General of India, Ashish Chaturvedi represented the Ministry of Defence during the April 22 hearing.Advocate Prashant Kumar Singh appeared for certain residents of the land in question (who have sought to file an intervention application) during the April 24 hearing. .[Read April 22 order].[Read April 24 order]