NEW DELHI — India's top court has given temporary relief to thousands of people who were facing forced eviction from their homes in Uttarakhand state.

The top court put on hold an earlier high court order and said a "workable solution" must be found.

Government officials have alleged that the affected people have encroached on land that belonged to Indian Railways.

In December, the state high court asked railway authorities to clear the land after giving them a week's notice.

But residents have been protesting, saying they have nowhere to go.

Reports say around 50,000 people would have been homeless if the high court order was carried out. They live in neighborhoods situated on a 2km-strip (1.24 miles) of land near Uttarakhand's Haldwani railway station.

On 20 December, a two-judge bench of the high court had asked the railways to "use the forces to any extent determining upon need" to evict the "unauthorized occupants" after giving them a week's notice.

But the Supreme Court said "thousands cannot be uprooted overnight" and added that a rehabilitation scheme should be put in place before evictions.

The legal battle began after a public interest litigation on illegal mining in the area was filed in 2013 - later, the scope of the case was widened to include the alleged encroachments as well.

From 1 January, the residents started getting eviction notices, The Indian Express newspaper reported.

Hundreds of people - including women and children - have been protesting for days against the order.

Some residents told The Times of India newspaper that they were being harassed without cause and asked how schools and hospitals could have operated in the area without permission.

"How can one deny the structures that were made during the British era? The railways has no documents to support its claim," one man told the newspaper.

A senior official has said that the Indian Railways has "old maps, a 1959 notification, revenue records from 1971, and the results of" a 2017 survey to prove their claim.

The state's chief minister had said that his government will follow whatever the Supreme Court decides.

Uttarakhand, a hilly state, is currently experiencing a cold wave, with the minimum temperature hovering around the 1C mark. — BBC