Delhi HC stays Katputli demolition for 10 days

New Delhi: The DDA’s demolition drive at West Delhi’s Katputli colony was on Tuesday stayed for 10 days by the Delhi high court so that persons eligible for relocation can move out voluntarily and those ineligible get time to appeal against the action.

A bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice C. Hari Shankar directed the police to maintain “strict status quo” in the colony and told the local residents not to carry out any permanent construction.

Spread over an area of around 14 acres, Katputli Colony was home to a large number of puppeteers, magicians, singers and musicians.

The bench said the persons who were ineligible for relocation as per the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and whose houses were demolished in the drive, should not be removed from the area so that they can prove their eligibility for relocation and rehabilitation.

The court also issued notice to the Delhi government, the Delhi urban shelter improvement board (Dusib), DDA, police and the Urban ministries of housing and urban poverty alleviation, and sought their responses on the writ petition moved by some residents of the colony and an NGO challenging the demolition and the manner in which it was carried out. The court told the authorities that while relocation may have to be done, “it needs to be dignified”.