Court Receiver in a Politically Charged Possession: Enforcing a DRT Order in Jabalpur

Pre-Possession Intelligence & Planning 

During our pre-possession survey, we established that political pressure and influence would play a key role in this possession. We had to have the entire administration on our side to successfully take possession. We also had to plan to have the entire property boarded up and sealed using tin sheets affixed to angles, and JCBs to knock down the illegal constructions.

We had several meetings with the Collector/District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police (SP) to seek assistance, as we had doubts that without administrative support, the possession activity might be derailed by unscrupulous characters and might result in a riot because of the political involvement. We also informed the local Certificate Holder bank officials of the plans.

Ground Preparation

After confirmation of support from the Collector and the SP, we zeroed in on a date. A colleague arrived in the town 3 days before possession to line up police protection, help from the Tehsildar as per the Collector's order, and arrange labour and material to construct a tin sheet wall on the perimeter of the entire property, which measured several tens of thousands of square feet.

As the parcel of land was quite large and on a main road, we planned the possession with 30 of our colleagues and 56 police personnel. The day before possession, our teams arrived from Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota and Delhi. The team was split into smaller units — a dedicated team to handle talks with lawyers of the occupiers, a team for photography and videography, a team for ensuring labourers were not disturbed whilst erecting the tin sheet walls, a team to liaise with police for crowd control, and a team to manage security of colleagues talking with opposition lawyers.

Day of Possession

On the day of possession, liaison team members went to the police lines and police station to get the force, and a colleague went to the Tehsil to get the Tehsildar. The entire team arrived at the property with the police force and Tehsildar at 09:30 AM.

The very first portion targeted was the one occupied by supporters of the Ex-MLA — once that was secured, the rest became manageable. Although we faced severe arguments from lawyers of the occupants insisting the matter was sub-judice at DRAT Allahabad and a stay was expected any moment, we continued insisting that we would only stop if a stay had actually been granted. Activities cannot be stopped on the assumption that a stay might be granted.

After successfully evacuating this portion, we got 2 JCBs to knock down all construction and level the ground. The remaining occupiers, realising their encroachment had come to an end, removed their personal belongings and vacated after initial resistance. Once the entire premises were vacated, the JCBs levelled the entire area. One JCB dug a large hole in the middle of the premises and all debris from the knocked-down buildings was dumped into it. This activity was concluded by 3:00 PM.

Securing the perimeter & handing over

Just as labourers started embedding angles into the ground to fasten the tin sheets, owners of the neighbouring land parcel arrived, insisting we must not encroach a single millimetre of their land. We got the Tehsildar to measure the entire land taken into possession, and embedded the angles precisely on the lines of demarcation drawn by the Tehsildar and his team.

The work of erecting tin sheets around the property went on till early next morning. At around 04:00 AM, we had successfully managed to secure the entire premises. At 10:00 AM the next morning, we handed over possession to a representative of the consortium who had purchased the property and proceeded to get the property registered in their name. The entire team was on site for the full 24 hours to ensure everything went as planned.