Unconstitutional to demolish homes merely because inhabitants are involved in crime: SC

Srinagar, Nov 13: India’s apex court Wednesday ruled that it is unconstitutional to demolish a person’s house without following the due process of law merely because they are allegedly involved in a crime. The Supreme Court was hearing petitions against the bulldozing of homes and private properties of accused persons by states, The Indian Express reported. A Bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan, while reading out the verdict, said: “We have concluded that if the executive in an arbitrary manner demolishes the house of a citizen only on the ground that they are accused of a crime, then it acts contrary to the principles of rule of law.

If the executive acts as a judge and inflicts penalty of demolition on the citizen on the ground that he is an accused, it violates the principle of separation of powers. It added: “We are of the view that in such matters, the public officials who take the law in their hands should be made accountable for such high-handed actions. For the executive to act in a transparent manner, so as to avoid the vice of arbitrariness, we are of the view that certain binding directives need to be formulated.



This will ensure that public officials do not act in high handed, arbitrary and discriminatory manner.” The top court also laid down guidelines, including making issuing of a notice mandatory before carrying out demolitions. Earlier, while reserving its judgment, the Bench had promised to protect even convicted criminals from state-sponsored punitive demolition of their legal private property.

The court was hearing applications challenging house demolitions carried out by the state government in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In both cases, demolitions took place after Muslim tenants allegedly committed crimes that triggered communal tensions. The applications were tagged with a petition filed by the Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind challenging demolitions carried out in Jahangirpuri in Delhi in 2022.

Since then, demolition drives carried out in other states have been challenged as well..