After Their House Collapsed By Heavy Snowfall And 2014 Kashmir Floods Erased It, Srinagar Court Protects Family's Last Boundary
The petitioners whose house was damaged by heavy snow and washed away in floods said accused local mafia of trying to usurp their ancestral land.
Published : March 31, 2026 at 2:27 PM IST
Srinagar: A local Jammu and Kashmir court has restrained the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and its field staff from demolishing a tin-sheet fence around a six-marla (1634 sq ft) ancestral plot in Rambagh Payeen. The court while handing relief to a family that said the land had remained exposed since their kaccha house collapsed due to heavy snowfall in 2014.
In his 13-page judgment, 1st Civil Subordinate Judge Municipal Magistrate Srinagar Fidah Hussain Nayek allowed a suit for perpetual injunction filed by Yameen Humayun Bhat, Fayaz Ahmad Bhat, and Ali Mohammad Bhat, all residents of Rambagh Payeen, Srinagar. The respondents were the Commissioner, SMC; Joint Commissioner, SMC; Chief Enforcement Officer, SMC; and the concerned Ward Officer.
Court records show the family filed the suit in 2016, saying their ancestral kacha house on six marlas of Abadi Deh land under Khasra No. 10 had collapsed under heavy snowfall in January 2014. The debris and remains were later washed away in the September 2014 floods that ravaged the Valley. To secure the vacant plot, the family erected tin-sheet fencing.
The plaintiffs told the court that some people in the locality were eyeing the land and allegedly trying to use municipal officials to have the fencing removed by calling it illegal construction. They argued the enclosure was temporary and intended only to protect the ancestral land from encroachment and stray animals.
The case moved slowly through the court system. It was instituted on April 27, 2016, dismissed once in July 2017 for the plaintiffs' non-appearance, and later restored. The court also allowed an amended plaint in March 2021. Despite repeated opportunities, the municipal authorities did not file a written statement. Their right to do so was closed on June 11, 2024.
In the ruling, Nayek asserted that the absence of a written statement did not automatically entitle the plaintiffs to relief. "It is settled law that even in absence of a written statement, the plaintiffs must stand on their own legs and prove their case by cogent and reliable evidence. A decree cannot be granted merely because the case has gone unrebutted; the Court is still required to examine whether the plaintiffs have established a legal right and its violation."
The court relied on the testimony of the plaintiffs and supporting witnesses, who spoke about the collapse of the old mud (Kaccha) house, the flood damage and repeated threats to dismantle the fencing. The judgment noted that some witnesses were not cross-examined by the defendants.
The judge also drew an adverse inference from the SMC's failure to contest the suit. "The same draws adverse inference as to their legality of any interference with the suit subject."
Holding that the family had established possession through oral and documentary evidence, the court decreed the suit and restrained the civic body from interfering with the fencing.
"The official defendants, along with their field staff, are restrained from resorting to the forced demolition of the existing fencing raised by the plaintiffs over and upon their owned piece of land measuring about six marlas, situated at Rambagh Payeen, District Srinagar," the ruling said.
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