The Supreme Court has reserved its judgement on ‘bulldozer action’ petitions before it and extended its stay on illegal demolitions across the country. Yesterday, October 1, 2024, a bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan said it was extending its interim order passed on September 17, 2024, that barred demolitions without prior judicial approval and would issue guidelines against unauthorised constructions.

The Supreme Court, while holding back its decision, emphasised the need to give the impacted individual a timeframe between the final demolition order and its execution to allow the affected party to make alternative arrangements. It ordered States to develop guidelines to address bulldozer demolitions and recommended that notices and demolitions orders be digitised and uploaded to an online portal to allow for transparency.

The bench further said India was a secular country and there cannot be a separate law for any specific religion.

"We are a secular country and our direction will be for all, irrespective of religion or community. If there is any religious structure in the middle of the road, be it gurdwara or dargah or temple, it cannot obstruct the public," the two-judge bench said.

It stated that it will not provide protection for any unauthorised constructions on public roads, government lands or forests.

“We will take care to ensure that our order does not help the encroachers on any of the public places,” the bench said.

The Court said it was "problematic" when certain illegal constructions are selectively demolished, and it is later discovered that the owner is an accused in a criminal case.

India’s top court had heard several pleas on September 2, 2024, regarding bulldozing down of houses which belonged to people who had been accused of criminal activities. Demolition incidents were reported from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for which applications had been filed seeking urgent redressal.

Readers may recall the Udaipur bulldozing incident on August 17, 2024, in which the rented home of a murder accused was demolished within 24 hours of the crime. The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) had written to the Chief Justice of Rajasthan and had sought legal action against the authorities involved.

 On September 17, the Supreme Court had issued a nationwide ban on demolitions until October 1, with exceptions for cases related to encroachments on public roads, footpaths, railway lines or water bodies.

Source: Media Reports