Prime Minister Modi has intuitively understood the logical consequence of the increased use of bulldozers to demolish alleged illegal constructions. During the general election campaign, he had said that if the Congress and Samajwadi Party formed a government, he would bulldoze the Ayodhya temple. Bulldozers do not know which structure they are demolishing – if their use gets out of control, tomorrow it could be a building in Central Vista in New Delhi, the day after tomorrow it could be the Taj Mahal and a week after that it could be the Ayodhya temple. However, the pattern of using bulldozers to demolish homes today suggests something else. The demolitions carried out in Nuh after communal violence had drawn sharp criticism from the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In response, the Haryana administration said in an affidavit that 79.9% of those affected by the demolitions were Muslims. This pattern is repeated across the country. In the last two years, houses of accused persons were swiftly demolished after communal clashes or violence in Mandsaur and Khargone in Madhya Pradesh, Sabarkantha and Khambhat in Gujarat, Jahangirpuri in Delhi, Prayagraj, Kanpur and Saharanpur in UP. Most of these houses belonged to Muslims.
The law is a mute spectator
In a recent incident in Udaipur involving a fight between two schoolchildren, government officials demolished the rented house of the teenager who was accused of attacking his classmate. The reason was clear: the house was illegal – but it doesn’t take a genius to understand why action was taken on the illegality so soon after the violence at school.
The law remained a mute spectator in this entire process. No law allows the demolition of the house of an accused, even if he is guilty, and even less so when he is merely suspected of committing a crime. Even if the person is a minor, this question does not arise. Most of the affidavits by the state governments lie that it is about illegal occupation of land, but sometimes it may be true, but no sensible person understands this.
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If it is indeed about illegal occupation, why the hurry? Most municipal laws allow emergency demolition only if the structure is unsafe and may collapse. Otherwise, there is a 15-day notice and a hearing as well as an appeals process before such a step is taken.
Shortening the process is not about speeding up justice but about showing people who holds the reins of power. Demolition is often about a vulgar display of brute force. Remember the Taliban firing rocket launchers to destroy the Bamiyan Buddhas? 75,000 small Bamis are being demolished every year in India, each of which is everything to a family.
Courts should exercise the power of contempt
Whenever such a matter has reached the courts, the brazenness of the action has been shocking. In a hearing earlier this week, a Supreme Court bench sought guidelines on safety measures to be adopted while demolishing homes. It is a well-intentioned move. But it is unlikely that it will in itself yield the necessary and desired results. When governments do not follow the law they have made, when the directions of the courts not to use bulldozers to avenge crimes are consistently ignored, is it possible that the new set of guidelines will be respected?
Guidelines come in handy when governments need guidance on how to do something obscure. Demolition without proper notice is such a bad thing that governments don't need guidelines to tell them it's wrong. They know it, but they do it anyway, under the protection of lawyers who are always ready to do what their clients say.
If the Supreme Court is really serious about stopping such demolitions, it should take action against the officials responsible for it. The Patna High Court has taken a step in this direction and ordered the Chief Secretary to identify the officials responsible for some illegal demolitions and take appropriate action against them. This needs to be taken further – every action of demolishing the house of the accused person without proper notice is not only a violation of the law but also a contempt of the orders of the Supreme Court.
The court itself should set an example by exercising its contempt powers to send the officer responsible for such illegal demolition to jail, compensate the person from the salary of the guilty officer and initiate dismissal proceedings. Only concrete action by the court can make such humble officers and their shameless political masters think twice before bulldozing people's houses.
inconvenience in life
Bulldozing homes may send a message of a strong and decisive government. But it also sends a message of a chaotic government that is incompatible with both the ease of living and the ease of doing business. It sends a message of a government that sees two rowdy schoolboys fighting, not as children who need to be disciplined, but as a Muslim perpetrator and his Hindu victim. Would the Hindu boy's pain have been less had he been attacked by another Hindu or Christian boy? In a society that cannot see two schoolboys for what they are, the bulldozer has done more than demolish a few homes. It has demolished a part of its soul.
(The author is Research Director, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Views are personal)