By Debby Jain
In the bulldozer actions matter, an intervention application has been filed by Professor Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, to assist the Court in framing appropriate guidelines from an international human rights law perspective.
To recapitulate briefly, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan is hearing a batch of pleas accusing various state governments of demolishing the houses of persons accused of crimes as a punitive measure. On September 2, the bench had expressed an intention to lay down pan-India guidelines to address concerns. On September 17, it passed an interim order that no demolition should take place in the country without the Court’s permission (except when there is encroachment on public roads, footpaths, railway lines, or waterbodies).
The proposed intervenor, an expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, states that the alleged arbitrary demolitions are contrary to international human rights law including the right to adequate housing and are disproportionate and therefore lacking in due process. He claims that he has a strong interest in ensuring that India, as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, respects human rights and its interpretations of rights are consistent with international human rights law.
This story was originally published in livelaw.in. Read the full story here.
