Appeal in SC on Delhi Slum Demolition
Appeal in SC on Delhi Slum Demolition
Congress leader Ajay Maken on Friday challenged the Supreme Court’s Order dated, 31st August 2020, for the demolition of slums along the railway tracks in Delhi, calling it “inhuman”.
On 31st August 2020, a bench headed by recently retired Judge, Arun Mishra had issued the removal of the jhuggis due to environmental degradation and accumulation of plastic waste etc.
Maken stated that, according to the Delhi Slum and Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015, no slum dweller can be evicted without alternative housing and the Policy provides for rehabilitation before such demolitions.
The Congress leader Ajay Maken and the slum dwellers have joined the MC Metha Case in the Supreme Court, in which 48,000 jhuggis, along a 140 kilometers of railway track around Delhi within 3 months, were ordered to be removed.
The Supreme Court barred any Court in Delhi from issuing a stay order on the demolition and evictions.
Maken in his appeal also stated that, the order violated the principles of natural justice as the affected slum dwellers were not heard individually or collectively. Taking reference from Olga Tellis V. Bombay Municipal Corporation (1986), which held that there can be no pavements or public properties an opportunity to be heard.
The plea further states, the SC directions to the lower Courts in Delhi barring them from issuing stay orders have amounted to “grave obstruction in the Right to Access of Justice and that the Order is against public policy as lakhs of women and children and elderly currently residing in large slum clusters alongside the railway tracks, they will be left on streets without a roof and even if a small proportion of displaced population is affected by COVID-19, it will be a recipe for a disaster. The slum dwellers are not secondary citizens and the eviction will a violation to the Fundamental Rights guaranteed to them under the Constitution of India”
(By Andrea Dsilva)
