The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has chastised the Uttar Pradesh government for illegally demolishing residential houses for a civic project.
A bench of the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra called the authorities’ conduct high-handed, according to a report by LiveLaw on November 6 (today).
The bench was hearing a 2020 suo motu petition registered on a complaint by one Manoj Tibrewal Aakash whose house was demolished in 2019 over a road-widening project taken up by the Adityanath government. A total of 124 constructions were demolished.
The apex court found that no notice was served and due process was not followed.
CJI Chandrachud said while the Uttar Pradesh government’s claim is that Aakash encroached upon 3.7 square metres of land, he asked, “How can you start demolishing people’s houses like that?”
“This is lawlessness…walking into somebody’s house..,” he added.
Later he also said:
“This is completely high-handed! Where is the due process followed? We have the affidavit that says no notice was issued, you only went to the site and informed the people through loudspeaker.”
Justice Pardiwala also called this conduct high-handed. “You can’t come with bulldozers and demolish houses overnight. You don’t give time family to vacate. What about the household articles? There has to be due process followed,” he added, according to LiveLaw.
The court directed the state government to pay punitive compensation of Rs 25 lakhs to the petitioner, the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary to conduct an enquiry against all officers and contractors who were responsible for the illegal demolitions and initiate disciplinary actions.
The Supreme Court had in September proposed pan-India guidelines for the demolition of property by governments.
Among states which use this – often as a punitive measure – is Uttar Pradesh. A day after the apex court’s bulldozer action ban, A.K Sharma, UP’s power minister and a former trusted bureaucrat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, justified and defended the use of bulldozers by the state government.