'House Demolished For Crime By Tenant's Son' : Plea In Supreme Court Against 'Bulldozer Action'

Two applications seeking urgent relief against bulldozer/demolition action by authorities in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have been filed before the Supreme Court. The matter will be taken up on September 2.

Senior Advocate CU Singh mentioned one of the applications today before a bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan, requesting that it be taken up on the next date of hearing in Brinda Karat v. North Delhi Municipal Corporation & Ors. (a plea challenging the 2022 demolition drive at Jahangirpuri, Delhi).

"An application has been filed pertaining to an ancestral home...on the same day that one of the family members was arrested, the front of the ancestral home was demolished, making the entire place inaccessible...without any notice, without anything...if Your Lordships could list the IA alongwith...This is a person who is personally [injured]", Singh said.

The other application was mentioned by Advocate-on-Record Fauzia Shakil. "[Here], a house of a person in Udaipur was demolished because his tenant's son was accused in a criminal case. He is personally aggrieved, he has also filed an IA. That may also be taken on record", she said.

At request, the bench directed that the matter shall not be deleted from the cause list for September 2.

For context, a batch of petitions were filed before the Supreme Court in 2022, relating to the demolition drive scheduled for April, 2022 in Delhi's Jahangirpuri. The drive was ultimately stayed, but the petitioners prayed for a declaration that authorities cannot resort to bulldozer actions as a form of punishment.

One of these petitions was by former Rajya Sabha MP and CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, challenging the demolitions done by the erstwhile North Delhi Municipal Corporation in Jahangirpuri area after the communal violence during the Shobha Yatra processions in April.

When the matter was heard in September, 2023, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave (appearing for some of the petitioners) voiced concerns about the rising trend of state governments demolishing the homes of people accused of crimes, emphatically stressing that the right to a home was a facet of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. He also urged that the Court should order the reconstruction of the houses demolished.

Case Title: Brinda Karat v. North Delhi Municipal Corporation & Ors. | Writ Petition (Civil) No. 294 of 2022 (and connected matters)