SC orders Prayagraj body to compensate owners for 'illegal' demolitions

Slamming the Prayagraj Development Authority for "inhuman and illegal" demolition of houses in the city, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the authority to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation in six weeks to aggrieved house owners – which included a lawyer and a professor.

"The manner in which the demolition has taken place shocks our conscience. Residences of the appellants have been high-handedly demolished. There is something called the right to shelter… due process of law," a Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said.

Maintaining that residential structures can’t be demolished in such a fashion, it underlined the importance of "rule of the law in the country".

The "high-handed" manner of the demolitions showed insensitivity on the part of authority, it said.

Contending that illegality couldn't be compensated, Attorney General R Venkataramani, representing the state government, opposed the grant of compensation on the grounds that the affected individuals had alternative accommodations.

However, the Bench turned down his submission, saying the compensation was a justification for denying them due process. "They have lost their houses due to this. You must make sincere efforts to serve the notice and not just affix it randomly. This affixing business must stop. Only because they don't have money, they are suffering," the top court said.

The Bench sought to remind the Authority that the right to shelter was an integral part of Article 21 and the rule of law was a basic part of the Constitution.

The Bench pointed out that the demolition was carried out by the authority under Section 27 of the UP Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973. A show-cause notice was issued on December 18, 2020, and pasted on the houses the same day, with the remark that on two occasions attempts had been made to serve it in person. A subsequent order of demolition was also affixed on January 8, 2021, but not sent by the registered post.

"The first registered post communication was sent on March 1, 2021, received on March 6, 2021, and the demolition was carried out the next day, leaving the appellants with no opportunity to appeal under Section 27(2) of the Act," it said.

"The object of the Proviso to Section 27(1) is to provide a reasonable opportunity to show-cause before demolition. This is no way of granting a reasonable opportunity,” it noted.

"When the provision talks about a person who cannot be found, it is obvious that genuine efforts are required to be made for affecting service in person. It cannot be that the person entrusted with the job of serving notice goes to the house and affixes it after finding that on that day the person concerned is not available," it said.

"There is a recent video in which small huts are being demolished by bulldozers. There is a small girl running away from the demolished hut with a clutch of books in her hand. It has shocked everybody," Justice Bhuyan said during the hearing, referring to a viral video from Ambedkar Nagar's Jalalpur.

Earlier, the top court had pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government for the demolitions in Prayagraj without following due procedure, saying it sent a "wrong signal".

Petitioners -- advocate Zulfiqar Haider, Prof Ali Ahmed, two widows and another individual whose houses on a portion of Nazul Plot No 19, Lukerganj, Khuldabad police station in Prayagraj district were demolished and they moved the top court after the Allahabad High Court dismissed their plea against the demolition.

The Allahabad High Court held that the land in question was leased in 1906 which expired in 1996 and applications for freehold conversion were rejected in 2015 and 2019.

The UP government contended that the land was earmarked for public use and the petitioners had no rights as their transactions lacked the district collector's approval.

The petitioner’s counsel had submitted that notices were given to them on Saturday night and their houses were demolished on Sunday. The state government mistook the petitioners' land for that belonging to gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed who was killed in 2023.