Officials, builders must compensate families evicted from Rims land, says Jharkhand high court

Ranchi: In a landmark decision, the Jharkhand high court has ordered the state govt to fix accountability on every person responsible for allocation and registry of land to private individuals on the premises of state-run Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) premises.

The court ordered that residents will be duly compensated by govt officials and the builders for which they have been evicted and put to trouble.


A division bench of Chief Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad, while hearing a PIL filed by Jyoti Sharma, ordered the state police to register FIRs against govt officials who have connived with builders and are responsible for illegal registration of land belonging to the state’s largest govt medical college hospital.

In its Dec 20 judgement, the HC observed that the govt officials responsible for registration of the land should have been more vigilant which would have saved lot of residents from being removed from the acquired land of Rims.

The HC expressed shock at Rims management for keeping mum while construction was being carried out on its premises. The PIL was filed in 2018 and yet at no time had the hospital informed the court that its lands have been encroached.

The fact could only be revealed after the Jharkhand Legal Services Authority member secretary conducted an enquiry on the directions of the court and informed that 7 acres of land within the RIMS premises have been illegally encroached.

The HC on Dec 3 ordered the district administration to vacate the premises and clear it of all encroachments within 72 hours. The court was wary of the fact that circle officers were in possession of the records all the time.

However, no official came up before the court and continued to change the title of the land by conferring it illegally in favour of different private parties.

Rent receipts, revenue records, non-encumbrance certificates which have been issued through the government agencies for the lands within the RIMS campus have all been doctored and manipulated the court observed in the order. The case will again be heard on January 6, 2026.




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