News Mania Desk / Piyal Chatterjee / 6th November 2024
The Supreme Court ruled today that dwellings cannot be demolished overnight and that families must be given time to leave, criticizing the Uttar Pradesh government for tearing down homes without following the proper procedures.
A 2020 suo motu case was being heard by the bench, which was presided over by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud. A letter sent by Manoj Tibrewal Aakash, whose home was demolished in 2019, served as the basis for the case. According to the petitioner, his house was demolished without warning because it was allegedly intruding on a highway.
Additionally, this occurs at a time when a different bench of the highest court is considering petitions contesting “bulldozer justice,” a phrase used to describe the destruction of property owned by those who are charged in criminal cases.
The Chief Justice said today that the demolition in this case was carried out without any notice. “It is clear (that) demolition was high-handed and without the authority of law. The petitioner states the demolition was only (carried out) because the petitioner had flagged irregularities in road construction in a newspaper report. Such action by the state cannot be countenanced and when dealing with private property, law has to be followed,” he said.
The Uttar Pradesh government had said the petitioner had encroached on public land.
“You say that he was an encroacher of 3.7 sq m. We take it, we are not giving him a certificate for it, but how can you start demolishing people’s houses like that? This is lawlessness… walking into somebody’s house…,” the Chief Justice said.
Justice Pardiwala, also part of the three-judge bench, said, “You can’t come with bulldozers and demolish houses overnight. You don’t give time to family to vacate. What about the household articles? There has to be due process followed.”
The court noted that the case documents show that the petitioner was not issued a notice. “We have the affidavit that says no notice was issued, you only went to the site and informed the people through loudspeaker. You can’t just with a beat of a drum tell people to vacate houses and demolish them. There has to be proper notice,” said the bench, also comprising Justice Manoj Misra.
The Yogi Adityanth government was ordered by the court to provide ₹25 lakh in compensation. Additionally, it requested that the state government look into the matter and take action against the officials who were involved in the unlawful demolition. The Chief Justice established rules that the state government must adhere to in these situations: determining the road’s width, notifying the encroachment, resolving any complaints, and providing a reasonable amount of time to remove the encroachment.
