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Pradeep Singh Bisht & Anr. v. State of Uttarakhand Through Chief Secretary & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 779Decided 19 Jul 2019
Civil Appeal Nos. 5679-5680 of 2019
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi · Justice Deepak Gupta · Justice Aniruddha Bose

Background

The Uttarakhand High Court had directed the eviction of the appellants and removal of what it termed unauthorised construction, relying substantially on a report filed by Advocate-Commissioners appointed by the Court. The appellants challenged this before the Supreme Court, and the matter was heard together with two other connected sets of appeals arising from related special leave petitions.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court's conclusions were not actually supported by the documents on record, and that the Advocate-Commissioners' report alone, indicating unauthorised construction, was not a sufficient basis for the High Court to order eviction and removal in the manner it did. The Court also noted its surprise that the Municipal Corporation, despite now supporting the High Court's order, had itself taken no independent action and had not exercised its own statutory powers in the matter. The appeals were allowed, the High Court's order was set aside, and the Municipal Corporation was given liberty to proceed independently in accordance with law if it chose to.

Lesson Learnt

A court cannot order eviction or demolition based solely on a court-appointed commissioner's report without that report being properly supported by the documentary record, and a civic authority with its own statutory enforcement powers is expected to use those powers directly rather than simply relying on litigation outcomes between private parties.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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