Law allows police to seize entire property: petitioner

Basant further argued that the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act allows the police to seize the entire property of an accused.

Several lawyers, including Manish Kumar Gupta, Mohd Faris, Aman Kumar, Raunak Arora, Akash Rajeev and Indra Lal, also represented the petitioner in this case.

The SC is also hearing a similar PIL petition of 2022 challenging certain sections and rules of this Act relating to registration of cases, attachment of property and investigation procedures.

Re-registration of FIR under law amounts to double jeopardy

The development came two weeks after the SC came down hard on “bulldozing justice”, saying that demolishing the properties of an accused or convict without following due process is “unconstitutional”.

“If a property is demolished solely because one person is accused, this is completely unconstitutional. The executive cannot determine who is guilty and cannot become a judge to decide whether they are guilty or not and such an act would constitute a transgression of limits,” the apex court said.

SC verdict on ‘bulldozer justice’

He said the principle that “an accused is not guilty unless proven guilty in a court of law” is fundamental to any legal system.

The new guidelines require authorities to give the occupier at least 15 days’ notice before demolishing an illegal residence and explain why the building is being dismantled.

Authorities in five of India’s 28 states destroyed 128 structures in three months in 2022, according to an Amnesty International report released in February.