With the help of the Butwal Sub-Metropolitan City, encroached houses and shacks built on land worth crores of rupees have been removed from the main market area of the Butwal High Court.
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The encroached land of the Tulsipur Butwal Bench of the High Court has been returned after almost 30 years. With the help of the Butwal Sub-metropolitan City, the High Court on Sunday returned land worth crores of rupees in the main market area of Butwal.
Nine houses and towers built in front of the main gate of the High Court out of the 2 bighas, 5 katthas and 14 dhurs of land under the former lot no. 396 on Durbarmarg in Butwal Sub-metropolitan City-4 were removed by using a bulldozer on Sunday with the help of the Municipal Police and Nepal Police. Earlier, on Asoj 9, the Land Management Committee of the High Court had decided to remove the illegally constructed houses and towers.
The land extending from JC Chowk in Butwal-4 to the west and from the road in front of the bench to the west from the main gate of the High Court to the south was encroached. The land, which was in the name of the then Zonal Office in 2046 BS, was transferred to the Butwal bench of the current Tulsipur High Court, after the Zonal Office was abolished in 2048 BS. The government meeting on 2048 Pus 4 decided to transfer the land to the then Appellate Court, Butwal. Later, the land was transferred to the current Tulsipur High Court, Butwal bench. After that, the court searched the land in its name, but was unable to remove those who had encroached and built houses and huts since 2053 BS.
The High Court has been trying to bring back the encroached land since 2070 BS, but was unable to remove it. The Supreme Court administration had first written to the Ministry of Home Affairs on 2070 BS, requesting it to return the encroached land. Based on that letter, the first public notice was published in the name of the Appellate Court on 23 Magh 2070 BS to vacate the land.
After the land was not returned even after that notice, the Ministry of Home Affairs sent a letter to the District Administration Office Rupandehi on 4th Jestha 2071 and directed it to vacate the land. Based on the same directive, the administration had directed the District Police on 16th Jestha 2071. However, no attempt was made to vacate the land. Again, the Appellate Court Butwal sent a letter to the Police Headquarters, Regional Administration Office, Police Office Pokhara and Zonal Police Office Bhairahawa on 27th Bhadra 2071 to vacate the land, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
After repeated attempts by the court and the directives of the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Home Affairs were not implemented, on 2076 Magh 10, a meeting of the High Court Judiciary Coordination Committee, chaired by the then Chief Justice of the Tulsipur Butwal Bench of the High Court, Sheshraj Shiwakoti, with the chief hospitality of Senior Supreme Court Justice Deepak Kumar Karki and including the Chairman of the Central Judiciary Coordination Committee and Supreme Court Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut, and Justice Ramesh Pokharel of the Tulsipur Butwal Bench of the High Court, had decided to take initiatives to achieve results within a week as the repeated attempts made by the court to remove encroachments from the land acquired by the court had failed. However, that too could not be successful.
After repeated attempts by the court were seen to have failed, the current Chief Justice of the High Court, Vasudev Acharya, started trying to get the land back from last Bhadra, but it was stopped after the Gen-G protest. Judge Acharya had called a meeting of the Physical Management Committee at the High Court on Baisakh 9. In the meeting, a meeting including Judge Acharya, Chief District Officer Madhav Prasad Pokharel, District Police Chief Janak Bahadur Shahi, and Butwal Sub-metropolitan City Chief Khelraj Pandey decided to clear the encroached land by using a dozer on Sunday.
Accordingly, the Butwal Sub-metropolitan City issued a notice on Saturday evening, directing the immediate removal of the unauthorized houses and huts built on the current plots no. 4, 7, 8, 12, 61, and 13 under the previous plot no. 396 in Butwal-4. The UML-led Land Squatters Problem Resolution Commission formed in 2052 BS had provided land ownership certificates to eight people by cutting new plots from the previous plots. One of them, Bhaktaraj Basnet, was provided land in the name of a political victim. UML leaders were in the then commission. After the Nepali Congress filed a complaint against the government for distributing government land based on party support, the District Land Revenue Office had cancelled the land title deed in 2069 BS based on the secretary-level decision of the Ministry of Land Reforms. However, those living on the said land had been reluctant to vacate.
Those who had been reluctant under the guise of political power had started removing their belongings on Sunday morning after the municipality issued a notice on Saturday. The sub-metropolitan city's dozer had started demolishing the houses and huts from 11 am.
DSP Nishant Srivastava of the Area Police Office, Butwal, said that the houses and huts were vacated without any damage or arrest. 'We had deployed a team with full preparation as the land had not been vacated for a long time,' he said. 'This time, the people living there vacated it easily, so we have demolished the houses and huts with the help of the dozer.'
The family of 8 people living on the court land also owns land elsewhere. One of the Basnet family members, being a political victim, had been living on the basis of the recommendations of various government investigation committees and documents provided by commissions. He expressed his increasing grief that he was evicted even though he had not encroached on it, but was allowed to do so by the state itself. Most of the houses and huts built on the encroached land were used as snack shops. Government buildings and court organization buildings have been constructed in other areas.
High Court Information Officer Thirendra Kumar Subedi said that the court land was returned after a long time due to the activism of High Court Chief Justice Acharya. ‘It seems that many efforts were made, but the land could not be returned,’ he said, ‘now it has been returned easily.’ He said that out of the 2 bighas 5 kattas 14 dhurs of the court’s land, about 10 kattas of land were returned by operating a dozer on Sunday. He said that the construction of the court building itself has progressed on 1 bigha 9 kattha 3 dhur of the former court plot no. 607 on the northern side, which is not encroached upon.
