By the time the vacation bench of the High Court began hearing a plea by residents of the Bhoomiheen Camp in Govindpuri, South-East Delhi, to stay the demolition of unauthorized residences, the civic authorities had already started razing hutments. Two of the petitioners in the case lost their homes while the petition was being heard by Justices Tushar Rao Gedela and Harish Vaidyanath Shankar. Both judges refused to halt the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) actions, even as notices were being issued to the authorities.
The nearly three-decade-old Bhoomiheen Camp houses migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal, as informed to the judges during the hearing. The slum dwellers, who are the petitioners in the case, first approached the court in 2023, claiming that the DDA was proposing to demolish their jhuggi-jhopri (slum homes) in an “arbitrary and illegal manner.” According to the petitioners, the demolition proposal was in violation of the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy of 2015. They also contended that the survey for their rehabilitation was conducted in a manner contrary to the policy—specifically, by “an obscure outsourced agency” appointed by the DDA.
Orders from Court
The court recorded that, according to the DDA, over ₹800 crore has already been expended in the rehabilitation process of JJ dwellers from the Bhoomiheen Camp. The court noted that the rehabilitation process is time-sensitive, and any further delay would lead to increased public expenditure and hamper the rehabilitation of other clusters and JJ dwellers.
Still, two of the petitioners, Manzoor Ali and Kashmir Lal, challenged Justice Sharma’s orders dated May 26 and May 30, respectively, before the vacation bench on Monday. However, just moments before their petitions were taken up, their homes were demolished.
This action by the civic authorities was raised in court, but the division bench refused to stay the demolition, merely remarking that it was being carried out in compliance with the single judge’s order.
