The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the petition filed against the state government’s bulldozer action in Gowalpada district of Assam. The petition said that the bulldozer campaign launched to remove more than 600 families is a violation of the directions of the court. The petition requested contempt action against the officials of the Assam government.
Chief Justice Bhushan Ramakrishna Gavai and Justice K.K. The bench of Vinod Chandran issued a notice to the Chief Secretary of Assam and others to respond within two weeks. CJI BR Gawai told the petitioner that if the government calls the land government in the rescue, then the order of the court would not be applicable to government land. It has been alleged in the petition that more than 667 families were affected by a large -scale eviction and demolition campaign in June.
Eight residents of Gowalpada district have filed a petition through advocate Adil Ahmed, in which he said that the demolition action was taken without giving adequate time for personal hearing and appeal or judicial review. The petition said, “The officials concerned made discriminatory implementation and operation of the eviction campaign … The action of eviction and demolition was mainly targeted by the minority community, while in similar cases the people of the majority community were left untouched.”
Senior Advocate Hegde Sanjay Hegde, who is representing the petitioners, said that only two days notice was given and the demolition action was taken immediately after that. Chief Justice BR Gavai asked, ‘Why don’t you go to the High Court?’ Sanjay Hegde said that many people had gone to the High Court and there too a petition was filed about rehabilitation.
He said that the encroachers also have the right to use the legal process. Sanjay Hegde said, ‘These are 667 poor families who have been living on that land for 60 to 70 years.’ He said that Brahmaputra keeps changing its path from time to time and people have to go to the height places.
The bench warned, “We want to issue notice, but if the government defends by saying that it is government land, then we have already said that our order will not apply to any encroachment on the government -owned land, roads, public places, rivers and reservoirs.”
After asking to issue a notice on the petition filed by the Supreme Court, Sanjay Hegde requested to maintain the status quo. The Chief Justice said, ‘If it is government land, it will not apply. We cannot pass any order contrary to our decision.
The petition cited the Supreme Court’s decision on November 13, 2024, in which the court set guidelines for the country. In the instructions, the property was banned from demolishing 15 days without issuing a show cause notice in the past and to respond to the victim side.
The petitioners were said to have been living with their families in Hasilabil Revenue Village for the last 60 years and till recently no objection was raised by any government authority. It has been said in the petition that on June 13, the authority issued a notice to all the residents to remove the construction by June 15.
It was also told in the petition that the residents were not given any opportunity for adequate time or hearing and the notice was issued arbitrarily. Within a few days, the authorities conducted a large -scale eviction and demolition campaign and this work was done without issuing any new cause notice or without personal hearing.
The petition also requested for interim relief through compensation, rehabilitation and reconstruction for demolished houses, schools etc. The Supreme Court, passing several directions, clarified in its decision of November 2024 that these instructions would not be applicable in the case of public places such as roads, streets, pavements, railway lines or in case of unauthorized structures in river or water sources, except for the court order of demolition.