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Sunil Kumar Kori & Anr. v. Gopal Das Kabra & Ors. Etc.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 9728-9729 of 2016)Decided 27 Sept 2016
Civil Appeal Nos. 9728-9729 of 2016
Justice Anil R. Dave · Justice L. Nageswara Rao

Background

A defeated candidate for the Panchamarhi Cantonment Board challenged the inclusion, in the voters' list, of residents living in illegally constructed/encroached houses within the Cantonment (defence) area. Earlier High Court rulings had already held that the Cantonment Board had no obligation to allot house numbers to such unauthorised structures, and in a later review had deleted a direction that would have let encroachers be included in the electoral roll even after being marked as unauthorised. Despite this, the Cantonment Board prepared voters' lists that included residents of illegal structures, leading to further litigation and an appeal to the Supreme Court by both an affected candidate and the Cantonment Board.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the earlier, now-final High Court directions were clear: persons living in illegally constructed houses on Cantonment (defence) land could not be included in the voters' list, and the Cantonment Board had no authority to include them merely by labelling them "encroachers." The Court rejected the Board's argument that the modified direction permitted their inclusion. It separately expressed serious concern about widespread illegal encroachment on defence land in Cantonment areas, referred to statutory provisions (Sections 247, 248 and 34(1)(e) of the Cantonments Act, 2006) for demolition, penalties and removal of complicit Board members, and directed that the law on encroachments be strictly and promptly enforced. The civil appeals were accordingly dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

Residing in an illegally constructed building does not automatically create a right to be registered as a voter tied to that address for local-body elections, especially on protected (defence/Cantonment) land, and courts can use even an election dispute as an occasion to push authorities to act against unlawful encroachments.

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

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