New Delhi, April 21: The Supreme Court has upheld the stay order on the removal of encroachments in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri. A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao will hear the matter after two weeks.
The court said that everyone should answer on each other’s arguments. For the time being, Wednesday’s interim order will continue. The court said that we are taking notice of all the petitions.
The court said that even after our order, if the action is going on, then we also take it seriously. Status quo order is for Delhi only.
During the hearing, advocate Dushyant Dave said that this is an issue of national importance. Never before has such action been taken after the riots. A community is being targeted. Then Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that ask them to talk on the facts of the case. This is not a forum for speech. Then the court asked Dave to talk on the matter.
Dave said that legally 5 to 15 days notice should have been given. In such cases, many times the court has extended the period of notice. The BJP leader wrote the letter and action was taken without giving a chance to the people. Delhi has 1731 unauthorized colony. About 50 million people live there. But only one colony is being targeted.
Dave said that the more than 30-year-old construction suddenly started falling down. It’s like jungle raj going on here. There is illegal construction on Soldier Farm and every other house in the golf links where I live. The corporation does not have the courage to take action there, while action is being taken on the letter of the state BJP president in Jahangirpuri.
During the hearing, Kapil Sibal said that encroachment and illegal construction is the problem of the whole country but in the guise of this, one community is being targeted. The Madhya Pradesh minister said that if Muslims do not remain calm, there will be no concession from them. It is time for the court to give a message that there is rule of law in the country.
Then Justice Rao said that we cannot order to stop the drive to remove encroachment across the country. Sibal said that I am talking about bulldozer. The way everything is happening is wrong. Then the court said that this work is done only by bulldozer. Well we get your point.
During the hearing, Dave, PV Surendranath, Sanjay Hegde and Shamshad said that the campaign continued even after the Supreme Court order which came on Wednesday. Then Tushar Mehta said that the campaign is going on in the area since January 19. Now an organization (Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind) has jumped into the matter. So far the local people have not gone to the High Court, because they know that the papers will have to be shown.
Mehta said that 88 properties of Hindus have also been destroyed in Khargone. Its notices were given in 2021. It has become a pattern that an organization jumps into the matter, and then it is made a political issue.
CPM leader Brinda Karat has filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court for continuing to take encroachment action through bulldozers in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri despite the court’s order. Karat says that the action to remove the encroachment was started without following legal procedures. The notice to remove the encroachment was not given to the affected families. It has been said in the petition that in the name of removal of encroachments, attempts are being made to create communal tension.
It has been said in the petition that most of the poor people live in Jahangirpuri area. There is a large number of Muslims there. Only poor people were targeted to remove encroachments.
Brinda Karat has said in the petition that she had reached Jahangirpuri at 10.45 am. Despite the order of the Supreme Court to stop the action of encroachment there, action was taken till 12.25 minutes, which is a violation of the order of the court.
Ganesh Gupta, the owner of a juice shop in Jahangirpuri, also reached the Supreme Court. The petition states that he had the necessary licenses for the shop. The shop was completely legit. Despite this, his shop was demolished. Ganesh Gupta has demanded that he should get proper compensation from the Municipal Corporation in lieu of this loss.
It is noteworthy that on April 20, the Supreme Court had stayed the action of removal of encroachment in Jahangirpuri. The order was given by a bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana.
On April 20, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, while mentioning the matter before a bench headed by the Chief Justice, sought a stay on the encroachment removal action. He had said that the process of removing encroachment in Jahangirpuri is unconstitutional. He had said that the process of removing the encroachments was supposed to start at 2 o’clock in the day but it started only at 9 o’clock in the morning. He said that a formal petition has been filed for this. After that, the court had ordered a stay on the encroachment action and hearing the petition on April 21.
It is noteworthy that on April 16, there was violence in Jahangirpuri during the procession. So far more than 20 arrests have been made in this case. On the other hand, the Municipal Corporation had issued an order for encroachment action by running a bulldozer on illegal construction.
