Commons in crisis

A landmark 2011 Supreme Court ruling to protect shared resources deepens struggles for India's marginalised communities

- HIMANSHU N PATIALA, PUNJAB

IN ROHAR Jagir village, nestled in Punjab's Patiala district, little has changed in the 14 years since a landmark legal battle over shared community resources drew national attention. Despite a 2011 Supreme Court verdict, hailed as a watershed moment for governance of commons—shared natural resources such as water, forests and pastures—in India, the 7.2-hectare (ha) pond at the centre of the dispute remains encroached upon. The ruling, intended to safeguard commons, appears to have changed little for the people it was meant to protect—or for those it sought to penalise.

The 80 households that encroached upon the pond remain locked in limbo. Unable to occupy the houses they had built, the residents cling to the hope that one day they might gain legal access. While wealthier families have moved on, building new houses elsewhere, poorer families have neither been able to claim the dwellings they had built nor are benefitting from a restored pond.

The conflict began in 2003, when village resident Jagpal Singh attempted to build a house on the pond, officially designated as gair mumkin (uncultivable) land. His actions alarmed fellow resident Dev Singh and members of the gram panchayat, who opposed the encroachment. The parties first approached the district collector, then the joint development commissioner and later the Punjab and Haryana High Court, before landing in the Supreme Court (see ‘Protracted struggle’). In 2011, the apex court ordered the eviction of occupants from commons across India and mandated state governments to implement schemes for restoring these lands. The verdict allowed for regularisation only in “exceptional cases”, such as where leases were granted under government notifications to landless labourers or socially deprived members of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), or where public utilities such as schools already existed on the land.