Chhattisgarh High Court rejects refugees' bid to block eviction from government land

On July 22, the Chhattisgarh High Court rejected writ petitions filed by Bangladeshi refugees seeking protection from eviction in Village Madanpur, Surajpur district. The petitioners claimed they were placed on the site under a 1964 rehabilitation scheme and had built homes, cultivated crops and installed tube wells over six decades. The state countered that the parcel belonged to the government and was allocated for a horticulture college run by Mahatma Gandhi University of Horticulture and Forestry, and the refugees could not produce any title documents.

Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad observed that foreign nationals cannot invoke writ jurisdiction to safeguard unauthorized possession of government land, referencing Supreme Court rulings that long-term occupation does not confer legal rights. With no proof of entitlement, the court dismissed all petitions.