The Delhi high court on Tuesday said there should be a protocol to carry out future demolition drives in the national capital by keeping in mind the constitutional rights of the individual. A bench of justices S. Muralidhar and Vibhu Bakhru said that “during a demolition, some protocol has to be followed. It is not that you go and raze the jhuggis.”
The court directed that a meeting should be held within four weeks on protocol to be followed in future by all the agencies concerned. “A draft protocol should be prepared within four weeks thereafter,” the bench said in its direction.
The bench said that Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) is the statutory authority which is assigned with the tasks of improvement, resettlement and rehabilitation of JJ clusters/ bastis in Delhi, so it will convene a meeting of all the land owning agencies in Delhi, irrespective of what stands these agencies may have with regard to the DUSIB Act.
“The agencies must extend full cooperation,” the court said, adding that the “protocol will be drawn keeping in view the legal, constitutional and human rights obligations of the state.”
It also said that while preparation of protocol, view of the people from the civil society group should also be taken into consideration. Police should also participate in the deliberation of this policy, it said.
The court, which has now fixed the matter for January 27 next year, also impleaded the ministry of urban development as party to the petition and sought its response on whether it has any policy with regard to JJ cluster.
The court’s order came on a bunch of pleas filed, including that of senior Congress leader Ajay Maken, who had sought that the railway ministry and Delhi police should be restrained from carrying out any further demolition drive in Shakur Basti area here, which allegedly left around 5,000 people homeless in this chilly winter and caused death of the six-month-old girl.
