Shocking: Supreme Court slams UP for demolition of house of lawyer, professor

The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government for demolishing the houses of a lawyer, a professor and three others in Prayagraj without following the procedure under law..The Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and N Kotishwar Singh berated the Uttar Pradesh government and stated such a demolition sends a shocking and wrong signal. "Prima facie this sends shocking and wrong signal and this is something that needs to be corrected," the Bench remarked.When the counsel for the State submitted that there was a indeed a ground to attach notices to the concerned persons' property, the bench stated "it knows how to deal with such hyper technical grounds.""You are taking such drastic action of demolishing homes and out of them one is lawyer one is professor. We know how to deal with such hyper technical arguments. After all there is something known as Article 21 and Right to Shelter!" said Justice Oka..The Bench was hearing a plea by five individuals - advocate Zulfiqar Haider, professor Ali Ahmed, two widows and one other individual whose homes were demolished. All the houses were on the same plot of land. After Allahabad High Court rejected their plea challenging the demolition, the petitioners submitted that notices were given to them on Saturday night and demolition took place on Sunday in March 2021.. Senior Advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari, arguing for the petitioners, submitted that the government mistook the petitioners' land for the land belonging to gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed, who was killed in 2023 in a police encounter."There was a gangster called Atiq Ahmed and they mistook our land as his. They (State) should just admit their mistake," said Bhandari.Attorney General (AG) R Venkataramani maintained that reasonable time was given to the petitioners to respond to demolition notice..But Justice Oka disagreed."Why was the notice affixed like this ? Why not send by courier? Anyone will give notice like this and carry out demolition. This is a high handed case of demolition that is all," said Justice Oka. ."Go to Page 182.. you say no procedure to send by post.. here the notice was sent by post. See it," the bench added. AG said that whether the person was there or not during the delivery of notice was a disputed question of fact."I am not defending the demolition but let the High Court consider it," said the AG. "Not at all. No going to High Court again. Matter will be delayed then" retorted the bench. .The Court said the demolished structures will have to be reconstructed. "This structure will have to be reconstructed. If you want to contest by filing affidavit then ok, else another less embarrassing way will be let them construct and then serve notices to them as per law," said the top court. .The petitions were filed through advocate Rohini Dua.