United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Balakrishnan Rajagopal has told the Supreme Court that the State-driven, punitive and arbitrary demolition of homes and commercial establishments is an “aggravated form of human rights violation”.
The Rapporteur, in an application on Friday (September 27, 2024), pointed to the danger of using punitive demolition by the State as a tool for land-grabbing. “All arbitrary demolitions are void ab initio in law, and no legal title or right may be changed on the site where a demolished structure stood. This is an important guarantee to ensure that in the guise of demolitions for technical breaches of the law, land grab from vulnerable individuals and communities is not condoned,” he pointed out.
Hearing on October 1
Mr. Rajagopal, represented by advocates Vrinda Grover, Aakarsh Kamra, Soutik Banerjee and Devika Tulsiani, sought the top court’s permission to intervene in the ‘bulldozer demolition’ case scheduled to come up for hearing before a Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan on October 1.
The court had ordered a stay on illegal demolitions using bulldozers on September 17 in a hearing that witnessed scathing remarks from Justice Viswanathan, who criticised States such as Uttar Pradesh of “glorification, grandstanding and even justifications” for razing the private homes and properties of undertrials and their immediate family members.
Mr. Rajagopal said punitive demolitions, especially against minority community members, amounted to “cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment”. Demolition of private property as a means of crime control and maintenance of public order was simply illegal, he submitted.
‘Over 7 lakh evicted’
The Rapporteur stated that India was witness to a “worrying rise of evictions of mostly marginalised and poor communities in recent years”.
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“Data reveal that from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2023, around 7.4 lakh people lost their homes as a result of State-driven demolitions. The scale and pace of these evictions reached unprecedented levels in 2023, with 5,15,752 people evicted and 1,07,449 homes demolished across the country. The data also reveal that 31% of the people forcibly evicted during this period belonged to historically marginalised groups, including the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, nomadic communities, migrant workers, and religious minorities,” Mr. Rajagopal reported to the court.
Forced evictions invariably lead to an increase in homelessness. Arbitrary use of State power to destroy homes was a violation of the right to live in security, peace and dignity. Demolitions that evict individuals into homelessness or that destroy personal moveable property were violations of international human rights law, the UN Rapporteur noted.
The Uttar Pradesh government had maintained in the top court that the demolitions were done in compliance with municipal law as a punishment against encroachments and violation of building codes.
‘Disproportionate step’
Countering this argument, Mr. Rajagopal responded that demolishing entire homes or shops that were in technical or minor violations of building codes or other regulations was a “disproportionate measure, which fails to respect due process under international law”. Demolishing entire homes or shops on the charge that they were ‘encroachments’ was also an extreme measure that must comply with the international human rights guarantees.
Resolutions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) say that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation”. The right to security of tenure and freedom from the threat of forced eviction are recognised as fundamental human rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). India is a party to both ICCPR and ICESCR.
Published - September 28, 2024 08:04 pm IST
