New Delhi:
The Supreme Courtroom at present issued a contempt discover to the Assam authorities following a petition filed by 47 residents accusing the state of violating the highest court docket’s order that no demolitions must be carried out with out the court docket’s approval.
A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan ordered the state to reply inside three weeks and directed {that a} established order be maintained till the subsequent listening to.
The petitioners declare their houses had been demolished by the authorities regardless of the Supreme Courtroom’s earlier order, in addition to an assurance from the Assam Advocate Basic to the Gauhati Excessive Courtroom on September 20 that no motion could be taken in opposition to them till their petitions had been resolved.
The case revolves across the bulldozer motion on 47 households in Kachutoli Pathar village and surrounding areas in Assam’s Kamrup district. The petitioners argue that they’ve lived there for many years underneath agreements with the unique landholders. They contest the state’s classification of them as “unlawful occupants” of tribal land, contending that they haven’t violated any authorized provisions and that their occupation was reliable underneath present agreements.
The petition alleges that authorities violated authorized protocols, together with the requirement to problem an eviction discover with a one-month interval for occupants to vacate. Moreover, it argues that the demolitions had been carried out with out giving the residents a good listening to and depriving them of their houses and livelihoods which is a violation of elementary rights underneath Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Structure, which assure equality earlier than the legislation and the proper to life and private liberty.
The Supreme Courtroom’s September 17 order prohibited demolitions throughout the nation with out prior judicial approval, besides in circumstances involving encroachments on public roads, footpaths, railway traces, or water our bodies. Regardless of this, Assam authorities allegedly marked the petitioners’ houses for demolition with out discover, main to the current contempt petition.