New Delhi:
Coming down heavily on ‘bulldozer justice’ for the second time this month, the Supreme Court has said alleged involvement in crime is no grounds for demolition of a property and such actions can be seen as running a bulldozer over the laws of the country.
Hearing a petition by Javed Ali Mehboobamiya Saeed of Gujarat’s Kheda district, a bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy, Sudhanshu Dhulia and SVN Bhatti was told on Thursday that municipal officers had threatened to demolish his family’s home with a bulldozer after a case of trespass was registered against him on September 1.
Mr Saeed’s lawyer told the court that revenue records of Kathlal village, where the home stands, showed that his client was a co-owner of the land. A resolution passed by the gram panchayat in August 2004 granted permission to build a house on the land, where three generations of his family had been living for two decades.
The lawyer also cited the September 2 order of the Supreme Court, in which it had proposed a set of guidelines to be followed before demolishing homes.
After hearing both sides, the bench said that in a country where the actions of the state are governed by the rule of law, a violation by a member of a family cannot invite action against other members of the family or their legally constructed residence.
This story was originally published in ndtv.com. Read the full story here.
