New Delhi: Supreme Court bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai having heard the plea filed by Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind and others against the Jahangirpuri demolition drive, on Thursday, ordered the status quo to be maintained till further orders. The Court added that the matter will be heard after two weeks and issued notice on all the petitions challenging the demolition drive which was led by the NDMC.
During the hearing, Sr Advocate Dushyant Dave said that the matter raises far-reaching questions of constitutional and national importance. He added that this isn’t an issue confined to Jahangirpuri; If this is allowed there will be no rule of law left. He further added that police and civil authorities are bound by the Constitution and not by letters written by a BJP leader and this is a sad scenario. He also says that encroachments are a serious issue but the issue is that a particular community is being associated with encroachments, adding that such instances are also happening in other States.
Dave argued before the court that fake encounters and demolition have become the state instrument policy, saying "Demolition has targeted one particular community, no mandatory notice was given before the demolition and despite the status quo being ordered by the CJI led bench on 20th April, the demolition continued. He added that the Mayor himself had addressed the media at 11 am about SC's order and yet the demolition continued till 12:40 pm."
"It is not just an issue limited to Jahangirpuri but it affects the very social fabric," submitted Dave, adding that there are 1731 illegal colonies in Delhi but the authorities picked up one colony because they wanted to target a particular community and that they acted on the letter of the BJP president. "You want to start demolition, start with Sainik farms, south Delhi, golf link, these are poor people," argued Dave. Sr Adv Kapil Sibal appearing for one of the petitioners argued that encroachment is not just a problem of Delhi but the whole country, but some incidents happened and only one community's houses were demolished.
A bench led by Justice Nageswara Rao on Wednesday had ordered a status-quo on the demolition drive started by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) against alleged encroachers in the Jahangirpuri area, where communal riots took place last week. A bench led by the Chief Justice of India ordered status quo on a mention made by Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave.
An altercation between two groups erupted during a religious procession in Delhi's Jahangirpuri on April 16 that left nine people injured including eight police personnel and a civilian. A total of 23 people have been arrested and two juveniles apprehended so far in connection with the incident. On Tuesday, National Security Act (NSA) was imposed against five culprits involved in the clashes that took place in Delhi's Jahangirpuri that erupted between members of two groups during a Hanuman Jayanti procession.
Read: SC orders status-quo on demolition drive conducted by NDMC in Delhi's Jahangirpuri
