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The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Prayagraj Development Authority to pay Rs 10 lakh each to six persons within six weeks for illegally bulldozing their homes in 2021, Live Law reported.
They included a lawyer and a professor.
“The authorities and especially the development authority must remember that the right to shelter is also an integral part of Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” the court said. It held that the demolitions as a “violation of rights of the appellants under Article 21 of the Constitution”.
The bench of justices Abhay S Okay and Ujjal Bhuyan said the “cases shock our conscience” and criticised the manner in which authorities affixed notices instead of serving it to the appellants before demolishing their homes.
The court was referring to the method of posting notices on the property in question instead of delivering them in person or via registered mail.
“It cannot be that the person entrusted with the job of serving notice goes to the address and affixes it after finding that on that day the person concerned is not available,” the court said.
“This affixing business must be stopped,” the court added. “They have lost their houses because of this.”
The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Zulfiqar Haider, professor Ali Ahmed, two widows and another person. The group had moved the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court’s dismissal of their petition against the demolition of their houses in 2021.
The petitioners claimed that the state government had erroneously linked their land to gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed, Live Law reported. Ahmed was killed in April 2023.
The petition alleged that the authorities issued the demolition notices late one night in March 2021 and razed their homes the next day without giving the residents an opportunity to challenge the order. The petitioners held the leases for the land, the petition said, adding that they had applied to convert their rights into freehold property.
The Supreme Court had on March 5 criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for the demolitions, which it said sent a “shocking and wrong signal”.
On March 24, the court had proposed letting the petitioners rebuild their homes if they promised to demolish them at their own expense if their appeals were denied, Live Law reported. However, on Tuesday, their lawyer argued that the petitioners could not afford the reconstruction and requested compensation.
The Allahabad High Court had previously dismissed their plea after accepting the state government’s submission that it had issued a notice on March 6, 2021, over the expiration of the lease in 1996.
There are no provisions in Indian law that allow for demolishing property as a punitive measure. Nevertheless, the practice has become commonplace, mainly in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In its November 13 order, the Supreme Court held that state authorities cannot demolish the properties of citizens merely because they are accused or convicted of crimes. The court, hearing a batch of petitions seeking its intervention against punitive demolitions by state governments, had also issued guidelines to curb instances of “bulldozer justice”.
Also read: How Supreme Court finally checked ‘bulldozer justice’ – and why it may not be enough
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