Illegal slum dwellers cannot be evicted with bulldozer at their door step early in the morning or late in the evening: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that even illegal slum dwellers cannot be evicted from their homes with bulldozers early in the morning or late evening without any notice, rendering them completely shelter-less [Shakarpur Slum Union v DDA]..Single-Judge Justice Subramonium Prasad refused to accept the the Delhi Development Authority's (DDA) actions against encroachers who were removed from their homes overnight without any notice. “The action of DDA in removing a person, whom they claim to be an encroacher, overnight from his residence, also cannot be accepted. The DDA has to act in consultation with the DUSIB before embarking upon any such venture and persons cannot be evicted with a bulldozer at their door step early in the morning or late in the evening, without any notice, rendering them completely shelter-less,” the court said..The court, therefore, directed the DDA to give sufficient time to such persons for alternate arrangements to be made or to take steps to accommodate them in shelters provided by the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) for three months so that those whose jhuggis were being demolished, were able to find alternate accommodation..Justice Prasad was dealing with a petition by Shakarpur Slum Union, an organisation comprising residents of the Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) Bastis of Delhi’s Shakarpur area.The plea stated that on June 25, 2021 DDA officials arrived to the area with police officials, removed the residents from the site and demolished nearly 300 jhuggis without any notices, or even allowing the residents to collect their belongings..The petition said that the JJ Basti in Shakarpur had been in existence since the 1980 and most of its residents are migrants from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, mainly involved in rag-picking, rickshaw pulling and domestic work.It was further argued that the slum was listed in the list of JJ cluster published by the DUSIB and consequently, the DDA ought to have followed the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015 to rehabilitate and relocate the residents of the demolished jhuggis, before initiating any demolition drive..The union, in light of these contentions, sought stay on any further demolition by the DDA and a compensation of ₹1 lakh to each affected family.A direction was also sought to the authorities to conduct a survey of the affected residents and rehabilitate them in accordance with the 2015 policy..However, the court held that based on the material on record, it was unable to accept the petitioner's stand that the the JJ Basti was in existence prior to January 1, 2006 and their prayer to conduct a second survey was also not accepted because DUSIB has already carried out the exercise in 2012-2013.While reaching these conclusions, Justice Prasad underscored that a writ court could not go into excruciating details of facts, which required to be proved by the union by leading evidence in their individual capacity."Thus a writ only lies where there is a right.".The judgment further said that as per the material, the union lies on the Yamuna floodplains and as per orders passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), ecological balance of the said floodplains was to be maintained.“As the NGT has assumed jurisdiction of the sensitive issue pertaining to the resuscitation and rejuvenation of the Yamuna floodplains, this Court does not deem it appropriate to disturb the same by way of a mandamus to the DDA to allow DUSIB to conduct a survey,” the court, thus, said..Resultantly, the court also denied relief relating to a stay order on the demolition and compensation..The petition was finally disposed of with directions to the DDA to carry out further demolition only in consultation with the DUSIB, with sufficient time to residents to relocate or while providing them wirh alternate arrangements. .Advocates Kawalpreet Kaur and Haider Ali appeared for the petitioner.DDA was represented through its standing counsel Prabhsahay Kaur and advocate Laavanya Kaushik.Standing Counsel Pravinder Chauhan and advocate Sushil Dixit appeared for DUSIB..[Read Order]