Chandigarh: Bulldozers were halted in Nuh on Monday on what would have been the fifth day of demolition of properties with alleged links to rioters after the Punjab and Haryana high court took suo motu cognisance of newspaper reports and stepped in.
A division bench of justices G S Sandhawalia and Harpreet Kaur Jeewan observed that apparently, without any demolition orders and notices, the law-and-order problem was being used as a ruse to bring down buildings without following due process of law. “The issue also arises whether the buildings belonging to a particular community are being brought down under the guise of law-and-order problem and an exercise of ethnic cleansing is being conducted by state,” Justice Sandhawalia observed.
We are of the considered opinion that the Constitution of India protects the citizens of this country and no demolition as such can be done without following the procedure prescribed in law,” Justice Sandhawalia observed. The court restrained the Haryana government from carrying out any such demolition drive if procedure is not followed as per the law. The HC took strong exception to statements made by state home minister Anil Vij that bulldozers were part of the “ilaaj (treatment)” since the government was probing communal violence.
Referring to the media reports on bulldozer drives in Nuh, the court said, “The action is stated to be on account of the fact that the individuals involved in the anti-social activities had made illegal constructions. The said news item would go on to show that buildings next to the hospital in the form of commercial buildings, residential buildings, restaurants which were in existence for a long time have been brought down by bulldozers.”