The Supreme Court of India recently highlighted the importance of Playgrounds in schools and said that all Students are entitled to have Good Environment in Schools. The division bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna in the matter of State of Haryana and ors vs Satpal and others took note while dealing with the case of the removal of encroachments from certain land earmarked for a school playground.
Additional Advocate General Rakesh Mudgal with advocates Samar Vijay Singh, Amrita Verma, Keshav Mittal, and Sabarni Som appeared for the State of Haryana. Advocates Surender Deswal, Abhaya Nath Das, SS Bandyopadhyay, Beena, Rahul Singh, VK Shukla, Riya Soni, and Satish Kumar appeared for the respondents.
"There cannot be any school without a playground. Even the students, who study in such a school are entitled to a good environment," the Bench remarked.
CASE BRIEF:
In the said matter, the government of Haryana appealed against the Punjab and Haryana High Court order of 2016 that had paved the way for the regularisation of the encroachments near the school.
The respondents offered to give double the land to the gram panchayat instead of having to give up possession of the encroached land. Other such persons had offered to pay the market value of the land. Prior to this, a local commissioner had filed a report establishing that the respondents and other occupants were in unauthorised possession of the land.
The High Court directed that the concerned authorities could segregate vacant areas from residential plots on the encroached land, wherever possible, and use the vacant plots for the school's use. The authorities were also given the option of availing the respondents' offer of being given alternative land or the market value for the encroached land, to legalise the unauthorised occupation.
The Supreme Court, however, opined that the High Court's directions could not be implemented. The Apex court proceeded to conclude that the High Court had committed a very serious error in directing the authorities to legalise the unauthorized occupation of the gram panchayat's land.
"... the original writ petitioners are granted 12 months’ time to vacate the land, which is occupied by them unauthorizedly and if within one year from today, they do not vacate the lands in question, the appropriate authority is directed to remove their unauthorized and illegal occupation and possession," the Court said.
Hence, any unauthorised possession of land meant for playgrounds, cannot be directed to be legalised, the Court added.
Case Details:-
C.A. No. 2984-2985/2022
THE STATE OF HARYANA AND ORS.
Versus
SATPAL AND ORS.
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