The Madhya Pradesh High Court has awarded a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a woman, stating that her house was ‘illegally’ demolished by the Ujjain Municipal Corporation without following due procedure.
While granting the compensation, the Indore bench of the high court also criticised the demolition and directed the Ujjain Municipal Commissioner to take disciplinary action against officials involved in fabricating a ‘panchnama’, according to a report by Live Law.
Awarding compensation to petitioner Radha Langri, the court observed that it has now become “fashionable” for authorities to demolish any house without following due procedure.
“As observed repeatedly by this court, it has become fashionable now for local administration and local bodies to demolish any house by drawing up proceedings without complying with the Principle of Natural Justice and publish it in the newspaper. It appears that in this case also a criminal case was registered against one of the family members of the petitioners and demolition activities were carried out,” the report said quoting Justice Vivek Rusia’s order.
Observing that no one has the right to construct a house without proper permission or without adhering to the regulations, the court emphasised that demolition should be the last recourse, that too after giving an opportunity to the owner to seek regularisation.
Recently, several states, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi have demolished multiple houses on different occasions, stating that they were built illegally. Most of them belonged to people allegedly involved in crimes.
The High Court’s ruling comes at a time when several states– including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi– demolished multiple houses on different occasions, stating that they were built illegally.
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