Dehradun | Report: Alok Semwal
Along the banks of the Bindal river in Dehradun’s Kargi Grant neighbourhood, what was once envisioned as a beautification project has quietly turned into one of the city’s most drawn-out land controversies. Back in 2016, the Revenue Department issued a government order transferring 94 hectares of land from the Municipal Corporation to the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority better known as MDDA for an ambitious River Front Development Scheme. The order noted that 1.5 hectares, roughly 19 bighas, would be earmarked for a cemetery, and another 1.07 hectares for driver residential quarters.
That same stretch of land has since become the epicentre of a bitter dispute one that has wound its way through multiple courts, survived several legal defeats, and still refuses to reach a conclusion. Whispers of powerful hands pulling strings behind the scenes have only deepened the suspicion that something far larger than a boundary dispute is at play.
October 2021 – When the First Brick Was Laid in the Wall
It started with a blocked road. In October 2021, a local man named Mo. Islam, accompanied by a group of residents, began obstructing a dirt access road that had been laid as part of the River Front Development Project. His claim was straightforward the land belonged to a cemetery. But his methods were not. The road was repeatedly damaged and blocked, disrupting access for those who depended on it.
Fed up, affected parties filed a formal written complaint with the District Magistrate on 1 November 2021. The DM didn’t sit on it he promptly directed the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Sadar to look into the matter.
What the investigation uncovered was telling. On 13 December 2021, the SDM constituted a committee headed by MDDA’s Joint Secretary, with the Assistant Municipal Commissioner, Tehsildar Sadar, a Revenue Sub-Inspector, and an MDDA Assistant Engineer as members. The committee was sent to the site on 17 December 2021 with a clear mandate -demarcate the land, verify its ownership, and establish the facts.
They dug through records. And they found nothing. Not a single proposal, not a single resolution, not a single entry in the Municipal Corporation’s board meeting minutes from 2008 all the way through 2017, that allocated any cemetery land in Kargi Grant. The supposed 19-bigha cemetery valued at crores existed nowhere in the official record.
Given the scale of what appeared to be a coordinated land grab, the Chief Minister himself was briefed that very day. He responded immediately, announcing on 17 December 2021 that the access road would be constructed directing the Vigilance Directorate to oversee the process.
But the road-blockers weren’t done. Elements continued to obstruct the path despite the announcement, prompting fresh complaints to the DM, who confirmed in writing that the road construction was underway and that MDDA was actively preparing to build it.
Then came the courtroom manoeuvre. Mo. Islam filed a Public Interest Litigation in the High Court naming the Secretary Home, the DM, MDDA, the Municipal Corporation’s Senior Sub-Inspector, the Cantonment Board, the Uttarakhand Sachivalaya Cooperative Housing Society, and four other bodies as respondents. The PIL was framed as a public cause. Critics saw it differently.
16 March 2022 – The High Court Steps I
The High Court passed an interim order on 16 March 2022, staying the respondents numbered 9 to 11 from encroaching on the graveyard described in the petition, and directing the District Magistrate to ensure compliance.
On the face of it, the petitioner had scored a point. But then the District Magistrate filed his Counter Affidavit and it blew a hole straight through the cemetery claim.
The affidavit stated plainly that Khasra No. 546 (min) in Kargi Grant contains no Muslim cemetery whatsoever. The only cemetery entry in the revenue records nearby was in Khasra No. 627 (Kha) a modest 0.0400 hectares. Furthermore, as per Municipal Corporation resolutions from November 2008, land for a Muslim cemetery had already been identified at Khasra No. 353 in village Brahmanwala 15 bighas of it and a separate plot for a Hindu children’s cremation ground at Khasra No. 136.
The implication was damning. The land Mo. Islam was claiming as Kargi Grant cemetery land wasn’t in Khasra No. 546 at all. What was actually happening, it appeared, was that land in Brahmanwala was being dressed up on paper as Kargi Grant land to manufacture a claim from thin air.
The petition’s next hearing was fixed for 27 September 2022. When that date arrived, the petitioner’s counsel withdrew the PIL citing insufficient evidence. The High Court’s stay order fell away automatically.
A Second Attempt -Dismissed Within Days
Barely two weeks after the withdrawal, Mo. Islam was back. A fresh PIL was filed on 10 October 2022. The High Court heard it and dismissed it on 14 October 2022, directing the petitioner to take his grievance to the Civil Court instead.
MDDA’s Own Error Comes to Light
Running through this entire saga was a complication that MDDA itself had created. The authority had recorded, in its own documents, that the 94 hectares transferred to it included “1.5 hectares of cemetery land in Kargi Grant.” That line buried in a file had given Mo. Islam’s claim just enough bureaucratic oxygen to survive as long as it did.
MDDA eventually came clean. In a subsequent letter, it acknowledged the error, clarifying that the 1.5-hectare cemetery reference was never specific to Kargi Grant it referred collectively to various cemeteries across the broader catchment area, including those in Brahmanwala. The letter further confirmed that characterising any Kargi Grant land as cemetery land was factually wrong.
The civil case that followed was transferred on 9 November 2023 to the Court of the Sixth Additional District Judge, Dehradun. Mo. Islam challenged the transfer in the High Court and lost on 30 November 2023. His subsequent appeal before the district court was also dismissed on 16 December 2023.
Yet Another Writ and Another Disposa
Undeterred, Mo. Islam returned to the High Court with a fresh writ Islam vs. State of Uttarakhand & Others. The court, this time, disposed it with a pointed direction: whichever body held authority the Cemetery Committee or the Waqf Board should file an application for demarcation of the property within 15 days.
January 2024 The Waqf Board’s Answer
When asked, the Waqf Board gave a clear answer through an RTI response dated 24 January 2024. Khasra No. 546, measuring 1.5 hectares in Kargi Grant, is not registered as Waqf property. No cemetery committee for this land has ever been registered with the Board. The Waqf Board went a step further it wrote to Mo. Islam directing him to approach the district administration himself, in keeping with the High Court’s guidance.
June 2024 The High Court Wraps Up Its End
By this point, the Uttarakhand Sachivalaya Cooperative Housing Society had also moved the High Court. The petition came before Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari. Advocate Priyanka Agrawal appeared for the Society, Standing Counsel Suyash Pant for the State, and Advocate Rahul Kansal appeared via video conference for the District Magistrate.
On 20 June 2024, the court passed its final order directing the Assistant Collector, First Class, Dehradun to take a definitive decision on the demarcation application within six months of receiving a certified copy of the order. The District Magistrate was separately directed to settle the matter within 15 days.
What the Records Actually Show
Stripped of the legal wrangling, the Society’s position rests on five facts that have remained consistent throughout:
Khasra No. 546 (min) carries no Muslim cemetery entry in any revenue record. The only cemetery land nearby 0.0400 hectares is in Khasra No. 627 (Kha). Municipal Corporation board records from 2008 to 2017 show no cemetery allocation in Kargi Grant at any point. The Waqf Board has confirmed the land is not in its registry. MDDA has itself admitted that its 1.5-hectare cemetery reference was a clerical error referring to cemeteries elsewhere. And the land at Kargi is government land, with the access road being built by the government itself.
To support its case, the Society has filed 18 annexures covering the original government order, the investigation report, the Municipal Corporation’s findings, the Chief Minister’s announcement, the DM’s Counter Affidavit, PIL copies, MDDA’s error-correction letter, the Waqf Board’s RTI response, and every High Court order in the sequence.
Where Things Stand Today
The matter now sits before the court of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and Assistant Collector, First Class, Dehradun. The six-month window set by the High Court’s June 2024 order has long passed.
Over three years. Multiple courts. Multiple petitions. The answer, every single time, has been the same Khasra No. 546 in Kargi Grant has no cemetery, never had one, and was never allocated as one.
And yet the Society’s access road question remains open.
Which brings us to two questions that nobody has satisfactorily answered: how much longer will this drag on and if it was MDDA’s own paperwork error that gave this dispute legs in the first place, what exactly is stopping MDDA from walking in and taking possession of the land today?
