Supreme Court’s whip on UP government’s bulldozer action in Prayagraj! Those whose houses were demolished will have to pay this much compensation

The Supreme Court has given a big reaction to the case of demolition of the houses of a lawyer, a professor and three female petitioners in Prayagraj by bulldozer in 2021. The Supreme Court has said that the process of demolishing the house was unconstitutional. According to the statement of the court, this arbitrary process of the authority to demolish the house is also an insensitive violation of the civil right to take shelter.

The court said that ‘it shakes our conscience. There is also something called Right to Shelter. There is also something called notice and other due process in this regard.’ The Supreme Court has ordered the Prayagraj Development Authority to pay Rs 10 lakh each as compensation to the five victims.

During the hearing in the same case, Justice Ujjal Bhuiyan, referring to the incident that took place on March 24 in Ambedkar Nagar, UP, said that during the anti-encroachment campaign, on one side bulldozers were being run on the huts, while on the other side an 8-year-old girl was running away with her books. This picture surprised everyone. This is an unfortunate situation.

At the same time, the petitioners said that they did not receive any notice before the action. Even the notice should be sent 24 hours in advance.

According to the petitioners, they were issued a notice on March 1, 2021. But they received the notice on March 6. Then the next day on March 7, bulldozer action was taken on the houses. The court heard the petition of advocate Zulfiqar Haider, Professor Ali Ahmed and others whose houses were demolished. The petitioners argued that the administration and the government felt that this property belonged to gangster and political party leader Atiq Ahmed.

All these people had complained to the Allahabad High Court. But the High Court rejected their petition challenging the action of demolishing the house. After the petition was rejected by the High Court, the petitioners approached the Supreme Court. During the hearing, Attorney General R Venkataramani defended the action of the state government and assured to follow adequate due process in giving notice. Pointing to large-scale illegal encroachments, he said that it is difficult for the state government to remove and prevent unauthorised encroachments.