The Punjab & Haryana High Court while staying the demolitions in Haryana's Nuh and Gurugram on Monday, 7 August, pulled up the authorities, who, according to the stay order were carrying out the drive without "any demolition orders and notices."
In the courtroom: A bench of Justices GS Sandhawalia and Harpreet Kaur Jeewan, who had taken suo motu cognisance of the case before passing the stay order said:
"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."
And raised concerns over this being an "exercise of ethnic cleansing being conducted by the state":
"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."
Of note: The Court's decision was influenced by news articles from Times of India and The Indian Express, both published on Monday, detailing the ongoing demolitions in Nuh and Gurugram. In the reports, the authorities cited anti-social activities and unauthorised constructions as the rationale behind these demolition drives.
"The said news item would go on to show that buildings next to the hospital in the form of commercial buildings, residential buildings, restaurants which were in existence for a long time have been brought down by bulldozers. The news item also says that the Home Minister himself has said that bulldozer are part of illaj (treatment) since the Government is probing communal violence...Lord Acton has stated “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," the Court observed.
What we know: More than 45 illegal structures and 13-15 temporary illegal structures were bulldozed near the Nalhar Medical College on Saturday, Sub Divisional Magistrate of Nuh Ashwini Kumar said while addressing the press.The district administration said the hotel was allegedly used by rioters to pelt stones during the violence.
This came two days after around 250 shanties of "illegal immigrants" were demolished in Tauru, located in Haryana's Nuh.
The police had said the shanties belonged to alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The shanties are said to be "illegal encroachments" on Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) land for the past four years.
After considering this, the Court deemed it necessary to issue notice to the State and directed the State of Haryana to submit an affidavit enumerating the number of demolitions that have taken place in the past two weeks in both Nuh and Gurugram.
"If any such demolition is to be carried out today, it should be stopped if the procedure is not followed as per law," the order clarified.
What next? The matter will be heard next on 11 August.
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