Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India TV.
The Supreme Court made strict guidelines on bulldozer action. The Supreme Court’s decision came on the application of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind against Delhi Municipal Corporation. The country’s biggest court said that bulldozers can operate but running bulldozers on someone’s house or property without following the procedure laid down in law is unconstitutional and illegal. The Supreme Court said that for the crime of one person, his entire family cannot be punished. This is inhuman. Officers cannot act arbitrarily in this matter. The court said that if a house or property is to be demolished, it is necessary to give at least 15 days’ notice to its owner. The landlord will have to be given full opportunity to present his side. Hearing will have to be done through appearance. Then it has to be told what is lacking in its response and on what basis running bulldozers is the only option.
The Supreme Court has also said that the entire process from giving notice till demolition of the house should be transparent, there should be complete video recording of the bulldozer action. Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K. V. Vishwanathan’s bench said that if any officer ignores the guidelines, contempt of court proceedings will be initiated against him. If found guilty, the officer will have to rebuild the demolished house at his own expense. The Supreme Court used a strict tone. The guidelines made are very clear, the entire process has been decided.
There are two main things to be understood in the Supreme Court’s decision. First, the court has not stopped the bulldozer action. Only guidelines have been issued. Secondly, there was a provision of 15 days’ notice for bulldozer action earlier also. Earlier also the accused was given a chance to be heard. There was a right of appeal. The Supreme Court has only tried to ensure that the bulldozer action should not be hasty, the action should be taken as per the prescribed procedure and it should be transparent.
The effect of this will be that if any crime is committed today, then bulldozers will not be able to run on the house of the accused tomorrow. It will take fifteen days for the bulldozer to reach. As far as the bulldozer action taken before today is concerned, I have some data. According to him, after 2017, more than two thousand bulldozer actions took place in seven states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra and Gujarat. But the most discussed was the action taken during the rule of Yogi Adityanath. Because Yogi destroyed the property of mafia and rioters with complete arrogance. All the mafia like Mukhtar Ansari, Atiq Ahmed, Vikas Dubey, Vijay Mishra bulldozed the illegal property and built houses for the poor on that land.
The decision of the Supreme Court has nothing to do with the Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh. The UP government was not a party to the applications on which the court’s decision has been taken. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind had filed this case against Delhi Municipal Corporation but when political rhetoric took over, the UP government welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court in the evening. UP government spokesperson said that this decision will make it easier to control the mafia and professional criminals. This means that Yogi’s attitude will not soften. (Rajat Sharma)
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