The Gauhati High Court on Friday stayed the eviction of several families from a plot of land in Kachutali village in Assam’s Kamrup Metropolitan district after the residents said that they had titles to it.

The bench of Justice Devashis Baruah was hearing the residents’ petition challenging an eviction notice issued by the district administration on September 13. Baruah directed the residents to prove their case before the district’s deputy commissioner.

The stay order was issued after the state government told the court that no action would be taken against the families till the deputy commissioner of Kamrup Metropolitan had decided on the residents’ pleas.

The eviction notice alleged that the residents were in “illegal” possession of the land and were “unauthorised” to claim the plot as it was meant for those belonging to the Scheduled Tribes, as per the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation. It ordered them to vacate the land within three days.

Officials from the district administration on September 9 had already bulldozed nearly 240 homes, the majority of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims from Morigaon district. The residents had built their homes in the low-lying area over several decades.

Three days later, on September 12, the officials returned and gave them an ultimatum to vacate the land in two hours. This led to a violent clash between the residents and the officials, during which two men – 19-year-old Haidar Ali and 18-year-old Jubahir Ali – were shot dead by the police.

Thirty-three people, including 22 government and police officers, were also injured in the clash.

The residents moved court after they were served the eviction notice on September 13.

Their petition claimed that their families had lived in the village for nearly 80 years and held titles to the land. They rejected the claim that they were not authorised to live there or were in illegal possession of the land.

While the residents acknowledged that the land was officially meant for use by the Scheduled Tribes, they said that many of their forefathers had been the “registered pattadars [a person whose name is registered in the revenue records as an occupant of a plot] of the scheduled lands way before 1950s when the aforesaid scheduled land was first included under tribal belt”.

Abdur Razzaque Bhuyan, the advocate for the petitioners, told Scroll that Assam’s advocate general had assured the court that there would be no eviction on the land till the deputy commissioner had decided on the issue.

“The court has observed that the procedure which is prescribed for the eviction of such type of patta holders has not been followed,” Bhuyan said.

Bhuyan added: “The court has directed all the petitioners to prove their cases before the concerned deputy commissioner by submitting individual representations, annexing all records to show that they are the landholders or the descendants of landholder who came into possession of the land before the tribal belt was notified in 1950.”

“The initial patta documents had been issued in the name of petitioners or their forefathers between 1923 and 1928,” Bhuyan said, adding that the outcome of the dispute could be decided squarely by the deputy commissioner.

“He is required to take the representation of all the petitioners and also required to give individual hearings,” Bhuyan said. “Until the deputy commissioner takes a decision, the eviction drive that has been notified cannot be carried out.”

Also read: Three days after a peaceful eviction drive in Assam, why did two men die in police firing?