The Supreme Court made strict guidelines on bulldozer action. The Supreme Court’s decision came on the petition of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind against the Delhi Municipal Corporation. The country’s top court said that bulldozers can be used but running a bulldozer on someone’s house or property without following the procedure laid down in the law is unconstitutional and illegal. The Supreme Court said that the entire family of a single person cannot be punished for his crime. This is inhuman. The officers cannot act arbitrarily in this matter. The court said that if a house or property is to be demolished, then it is necessary to give a notice of at least 15 days to its owner. The house owner must be given a full opportunity to present his side. The hearing will have to be done through appearance. Then it will have to be told what is lacking in his answer and on what basis running a bulldozer is the only option.
The Supreme Court has also said that the entire process from giving notice to demolishing the house should be transparent, and there should be a complete video recording of the bulldozer action. The bench of Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K.V. Vishwanathan said that if any officer ignores the guidelines, then contempt of court proceedings will be initiated against him. If found guilty, the officer will have to rebuild the demolished house at his own expense. The Supreme Court used a strict tone. The guidelines that were made are very clear, the entire process has been decided.
There are two important things to understand in the Supreme Court’s decision. First, the court has not banned the bulldozer action. It has only issued guidelines. Secondly, there was a provision of a 15-day notice for bulldozer action earlier as well. Earlier too, the accused was given a chance to be heard. There was a right to appeal. The Supreme Court has only tried to ensure that the bulldozer action is not done in a hurry, action should be taken as per the prescribed procedure and it should be transparent.
The effect of this will be that if a crime is committed today, the bulldozer will not be able to run to the accused’s house tomorrow. It will take fifteen days for the bulldozer to arrive. As far as the bulldozer action before today is concerned, I have some data. According to that, after 2017, more than two thousand bulldozer actions were taken in seven states Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. But the action taken during the rule of Yogi Adityanath was most discussed. Because Yogi demolished the property of the mafia and rioters with full arrogance. Bulldozers were run on the illegal properties of all mafias like Mukhtar Ansari, Atiq Ahmed, Vikas Dubey, and Vijay Mishra, and houses were built for the poor on that land.
The Supreme Court’s decision has nothing to do with the Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh. The UP government was not a party to the petitions on which the court’s decision has come. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind had filed this case against the Delhi Municipal Corporation, but when political rhetoric took place, the UP government welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision in the evening. The UP government’s spokesperson said that this decision will make it easier to control the mafia and professional criminals. This means that Yogi’s attitude will not soften.