Jahangirpuri demolition case: Supreme Court continues stay order; hearing after 2 weeks

In a key development on Thursday, the Supreme Court issued notice in all the petitions filed pertaining to the Jahangirpuri demolition case. A bench of the SC comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai was hearing a bunch of pleas challenging the anti-encroachment drive that took place in Jahangirpuri on April 20. At the outset, senior advocate Dushyant Dave argued that this case raises far-reaching questions of constitutional and national importance. When the court questioned him on what is the national importance in this matter, Dave replied that a particular section of society has been targeted.

Dushyant Dave observed, "They (authorities) knew we will mention at 10.30 am and that is why demolition began at 9 am .They continued even after the status quo order was passed. This affects rule of law and there will be no democracy left. How can BJP leader write a letter that you demolish and NDMC demolishes it!"

Noting that only area was singled out even as there are 731 unauthorised colonies in Delhi with 50 lakh people, he pointed out that Section 343 of the MCD Act provides for notice to be issued before demolition. Appearing for the Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind, senior advocate Kapil Sibal stated that the problem is that only Muslims are being associated with encroachments. Citing incidents in other parts of the country, he contended that the authorities cannot demolish someone's house and later say that they had encroached land. However, the bench made it clear that it cannot stay demolitions across the country. 

Meanwhile, senior advocate Sanjay Hegde appeared for Ganesh Gupta who claimed that his juice shop was demolished despite him possessing valid papers. After asking him to show the papers, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta highlighted that the drive to remove the encroachments in Jahangirpuri began on January 19 itself. Rubbishing the religious discrimination argument put forth by the petitioners, he revealed that the affected parties in the Khargone demolition includes 88 Hindus and 26 Muslims. 

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta mentioned, "I will show you instances when notice is not required and illegal structures were given the notice. traders have moved HC last year and HC had itself ordered demolition". Moreover, he added that notice was not required to demolish stalls, chairs, tables etc. Thereafter, the SC sought affidavits from the petitioners and counter-affidavits if required. Moreover, it directed that the status quo will be maintained; i.e the stay on the demolition drive will continue until further orders.

The bench added, "We will take a serious view of the demolition which was carried out even after supreme court orders even after NDMC Mayor was informed. We will take that up later". The matter will be listed for hearing after a period of two weeks. 

The Jahangirpuri demolition case

The NDMC commenced a two-day anti-encroachment drive in Jahangirpuri on Wednesday. There was a heavy police presence in the area to provide security to the officials of the civic agency and senior police officers were personally present on the spot to focus on the law and order situation. After senior advocate Dushyant Dave mentioned a plea before an SC bench seeking an urgent hearing of the petition challenging this action, CJI NV Ramana ordered status quo until Thursday. But the opposition cried foul as the drive continued even after the SC order.