Nuh Demolition | Pleas Before Punjab & Haryana High Court Seek Compensation For Allegedly 'Unlawful Demolitions' By Authorities

Two petitions have been filed before the Punjab & Haryana High Court seeking compensation for the alleged "unlawful demolition" of houses by the Haryana Government after the Nuh violence erupted as an aftermath of communal clashes in Haryana's Mewat region in August, 2023.

The plea states that despite possessing the necessary documents to establish the was completely a lawful construction, it was arbitrarily demolished "without any prior notice being given to the petitioner", nor any opportunity of hearing, leaving him devoid of his shelter and earning apart from "causing tremendous financial and emotional loss."

Further,it was submitted that after the "unlawful demolition", the petitioners were constrained to relocate to some other area, thereby completely shattering their peaceful lives.

Reliance was placed upon the Apex Court's landmark judgement in Rudul Sah v. State of Bihar, (1983) wherein it has been held that, "The right to compensation is some palliative for the unlawful acts of instrumentalities which act in the name of public interest and which present for their protection the powers of the State as a shield. If civilisation is not to perish in this country as it has perished in some others too well known to suffer mention, it is necessary to educate ourselves into accepting that, respect for the rights of individuals is the true bastion of democracy. Therefore. the State must repair the damage done by its officers to the petitioner's rights. It may have recourse against those officers."

It is worthwhile to mention that last year, the Punjab & Haryana High Court in a suo moto action stayed the demolition drive in Nuh, which followed the communal clashes.

While staying the demolition drive carried out by the Haryana authorities in communal violence-hit Nuh and Gurugram, the High Court made certain critical observations.

The Court stated that its had come to its notice that the State of Haryana was using force and demolishing buildings on account of the fact that some riots have occurred in Gurugram and Nuh.

"Apparently, without any demolition orders and notices, the law and order problem is being used as a ruse to bring down buildings without following the procedure established by law" the Court had observed.

"The issue also arises whether the buildings belonging to a particular community are being brought down under the guise of law and order problem and an exercise of ethnic cleansing is being conducted by the State," a division bench of Justice G.S Sandhawalia and Justice Harpreet Kaur Jeewan had observed on that occassion.

In a reply filed by Deputy Commissioner of Nuh, it was stated that no demolition activity in the area was carried out without following the procedure of law.

In the last proceeding in November 2023, after considering the request of the State Government, the matter was deferred to January 29, 2024.

Case Title: Akil Hussain v. State of Haryana & Ors and Salim v. State of Haryana & Ors

Counsel for the petitioner: Advocates Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, Mannat Anand, Nupur Sood, Ibad Mushtaq, Gurneet Kaur