Supreme Court pulls up UP government for illegal demolition carried out in 2020

New Delhi:

Pulling up the Uttar Pradesh government for demolishing houses without due process, the Supreme Court today said houses cannot be razed overnight and families must be given time to vacate the premises.

The court headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud was hearing a suo motu case from 2020. The case was based on a letter from Manoj Tibrewal Aakash, whose house was demolished in 2019. The petitioner had stated that his house had been razed without notice for an alleged encroachment on a highway.

It also comes at a time when a separate bench of the top court is entertaining petitions challenging “bulldozer justice” – a term used to refer to the demolition of properties belonging to people accused in criminal cases.

The chief justice today said the demolition in this case was carried out without notice. “It is clear that the demolition was arbitrary and without the authority of law. The petitioner states that the demolition was carried out only because the petitioner had reported irregularities in the construction of the road in a newspaper article. Such action on the part of the state cannot be accepted and when it comes to private property, the law must be respected,” he said.

The Uttar Pradesh government had said that the petitioner had encroached on public land.

“You say he encroached on 3.7 m². We take it, we don’t give him a certificate, but how can we start demolishing people’s houses like that? It’s anarchy… enter in someone’s house….”, the chief justice said.

Justice Pardiwala, who is also part of the three-judge bench, said: “You cannot come with bulldozers and demolish houses overnight. You do not give the family time to leave the premises. What about household items? There must be due process. follow up.”

The court noted that the record documents show that the petitioner did not receive notice. “We have the affidavit that says no notice was issued, you just went out there and informed people over the loudspeaker. You can’t just with a beat of the drum tell people to leave the houses and demolish them,” said the bench, also comprising Justice Manoj Misra.

The court asked the Yogi Adityanth government to pay Rs 25 lakh as compensation. He also asked the state government to investigate and take action against the officials responsible for the illegal demolition.

The chief justice laid down guidelines for the state government to follow in such cases: it must determine the width of the road, issue a notice to remove the encroachment, decide on any objection and grant reasonable time to remove the encroachment.