“You can’t just roll in with bulldozers and demolish homes overnight.”
AMN
The Supreme Court of India on November 6 ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to pay Rs. 25 lakhs in compensation for the illegal demolition of homes to make way for a road-widening project.
The order came during the hearing of a suo-motu writ petition filed in 2020, stemming from a complaint by Manoj Tibrewal Aakash, whose house in Maharajganj district was demolished in 2019. The Supreme Court, while rapping the illegal demolition by the UP government, emphatically observed that, “You can’t just roll in with bulldozers and demolish homes overnight.”
The three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, expressed strong dissatisfaction with the conduct of the authorities, condemning the Uttar Pradesh government’s actions as “high-handed”, according to Live Law.
“The demolition was carried out without any notice or disclosure to the occupiers of the basis of the demarcation or the extent of demolition to be carried out. It is clear demolition was high handed and without the authority of law. The petitioner states the demolition was only because the petitioner had flagged irregularities in road construction in newspaper report. Such action by the State cannot be countenanced and when dealing with private property, law has to be followed,” the Court said.