The UP government was strongly criticized by the Supreme Court on Wednesday for destroying houses to expand roads. The court referred to this action as tyrannical and unauthorized by law. The panel led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, along with Justice Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra, also ordered the UP government to provide a Rs 25 lakh compensation to individuals whose homes were destroyed in this operation.
While speaking in court, Justice Pardiwala mentioned that it is not permissible to destroy a house abruptly using heavy machinery. You don’t allow the family enough time to leave the house. How about the items for the home? The process of due process needs to be adhered to. The court ordered the chief secretary of the state to carry out a disciplinary investigation on the officials accountable for the unauthorized demolition. The Supreme court was considering a case initiated by itself in 2020 following a report from Manoj Tibrewal Akash, whose residence was destroyed by the government in 2019. He stated that his house was torn down unexpectedly without warning or reason for supposedly encroaching on the highway.
CJI Chandrachud responded to the state government’s statement about the petitioner encroaching on public land by acknowledging the alleged encroachment of 3.7 sq m. We acknowledge it, we are not providing him with a certificate, but why would you begin demolishing people’s homes in this manner? This is chaos… entering a person’s residence. The court stated that the petitioner was not notified and proper legal procedures were not followed.
This is completely random. Where was the proper legal procedure observed? We possess a sworn statement affirming that no official notification was given; you simply went to the location and alerted individuals using loudspeakers. You can’t simply play drums and tell people to leave their homes and tear them down. The bench instructed the UP government to provide appropriate notification. The Supreme Court also acknowledged the report from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) stating that the demolitions were much greater in scale compared to the supposed encroachments.