Patna High Court on Wednesday directed the government to file within two weeks the status report of the drive to remove encroachments from six government medical colleges in the state.

The division bench of Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Shivaji Pandey passed the direction following the Supreme Court’s directive (of April 1) to the high court to monitor the removal of encroachments from the premises of the medical colleges.

On January 4, 2011, the high court had passed an order passed to the effect.

“Neither we have any option nor you (the state government),” the bench observed while hearing the PIL, which was restored by the high court in the light of apex court’s directive. Following the state government’s lackadaisical approach in removing the encroachments in medical colleges despite the high court’s order, the Supreme Court restored the PIL filed by one Vikash Chandra Guddu Baba.

“We are of the view that without such monitoring, the work may not be completed as intended by the Patna High Court. We set aside the impugned order dated November 16, 2011, and restore the petition,” a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said while disposing of Guddu Baba’s petition.

The Supreme Court also took note of the fact that the division bench of the high court disposed of the PIL filed by Guddu Baba on November 16, 2011, without noting the earlier orders for monitoring the work. In its directive, the Patna High Court directed the state government to remove all the encroachments from medical colleges of the state within three months.

The medical colleges where squatters have set up home are Patna Medical College and Hospital, Nalanda Medical College and Hospital in Patna, Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital in Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur and Anugrah Narayan Medical College and Hospital in Gaya.

The court also constituted a special task force (STF) under the chairmanship of the principal secretary of the health department to execute the order. In the first month, the STF would complete the process of demarcating the encroachments and evict the encroachers. The health department would complete construction of the boundary walls of these colleges. The principal secretary would also be required to file a compliance report.