New Delhi — India’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that authorities demolishing illegally built homes and other properties owned by suspected criminals are unconstitutional and must stop. The practice is reportedly widely used by several state governments to punish suspects outside the judicial process, and is commonly known as ‘bulldozer justice’.
“The executive cannot become a judge and decide that an accused is guilty and therefore punish him by demolishing his property. Such an act would be an offense. [the] limits of executive power,” the court said in a 95-page ruling.
The court ruled in response to several petitions regarding a wave of home demolitions targeting suspected criminals in states covered by the law. Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in recent years. Critics have accused the BJP state governments of using bulldozer justice in the first place aimed at Muslims – an accusation the party has repeatedly denied.
State BJP officials have argued that due process of law was followed in carrying out the demolition, but the court said the authorities had adopted a ‘pick and choose’ attitude towards illegally constructed houses, with the properties were singled out belonging to Muslims suspected of other crimes, while similar but illegal properties not owned by Muslims were located in the same area.
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“In such cases, where the authorities indulge in arbitrary selection of structures and it is established that shortly before the commencement of such action an occupant of the structure was found to be involved in a criminal case, a suspicion could be drawn that The real motive for such demolition proceedings was not the illegal construction, but an action that punished the suspect without even trying him in court,” the court said.
One of the petitions in the Supreme Court was filed over the April 2022 demolition of dozens of majority-Muslim-owned houses following sectarian clashes in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area, which sparked allegations of religious discrimination and extrajudicial punishment.
“The chilling sight of a bulldozer destroying a building… is reminiscent of a lawless state of affairs,” Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan said in the court’s judgment on Wednesday. “Our constitutional ethos and values would not permit such abuse of power and such misadventures cannot be tolerated by the court.”
The court warned state authorities that it would take action against officials found guilty of “such wayward and arbitrary” actions and issued detailed guidelines for the demolition of houses built without the required permits.
The new guidelines require authorities to give a resident at least 15 days’ notice before demolishing an illegal house and to explain the reason for the building’s demolition.
The new guidelines state that residents of such properties should be given sufficient time to remove the structure or challenge the demolition order in court.
Authorities in five of India’s 28 states demolished 128 structures over the course of just three months in 2022, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report in February.
