SC berates UP Government for demolishing houses of lawyer, professor

New Delhi [India], March 6 (ANI): The Supreme Court has strongly criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for demolishing the houses of a lawyer, a professor and a few others in Prayagraj without following the procedure of law.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and N Kotiswar Singh stated that such acts send a shocking and wrong signal.
"After all, there is something known as Article 21 and Right to Shelter", the Court said on Wednesday.
The counsel representing the State told the court that notices were affixed at the properties in question before the demolitions took place. However, the Court in its response stated that these are hyper technical grounds, and it knows how to deal with them.
The Court termed the state's action as drastic and nothing less than a high-handed case of demolition.
The Court was dealing with a plea filed by Advocate Zulfiqar Haider, Professor Ali Ahmed and three other persons whose houses had been demolished by the State authorities.
They had argued that they were given notices regarding the demolition just one night before it took place in March 2021.
Senior Advocate Abhimanyu Bhandari, the counsel appearing for the petitioners, stated that the State authorities mistook the land on which his client's houses were built for that of gangster Atiq Ahmed, who was murdered in 2023. The senior lawyer stated that the authorities should admit their mistake.
The Court questioned the State as to why the notices were affixed and not sent to petitioners through courier, as per law. The Court said that the demolished structures must be rebuilt.
"If you want to contest by filing affidavit then okay, else another less embarrassing way will be let them construct and then serve notices to them as per law," said the top court.
Advocate Rohini Dua represented the petitioners. (ANI)