E-Paper
Now, high court stays demolition of Chandigarh’s Shahpur Colony
Residents of Shahpur Colony argued before high court that they had been provided house numbers, ration cards and Aadhaar cards, and were also owners of these houses, situated in Abadi Deh area as per revenue records
Less than two weeks after the Punjab and Haryana high court stayed the demolition drive at Janta Colony in Sector 25 on May 13, denting UT administration’s plans to make the city slum-free by May end, the court has now restrained it from razing Shahpur Colony in Sector 38-A.
The court has also sought a response from the central government on whether it has a policy for rehabilitating people who out of necessity encroach upon government land and have right to life as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The high court bench of justice Amol Rattan Singh and justice Lalit Batra acted on the plea of Rajinder Kumar and others, who had sought quashing of the May-14 demolition notices put up by the Chandigarh administration.
It was argued that they had been provided house numbers, ration cards and Aadhaar cards, and were also owners of these houses, situated in Abadi Deh area as per revenue records.
It was informed that as mandated under Section 12 of the Punjab New Capital (Periphery) Control Act, 1952, they were not served show-cause notices and were suddenly issued vacation notices one day.
During the hearing, the court asked the UT administration counsel whether the case of residents has been considered as per the terms of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, 2015.
UT’s counsel told the court that as per one of the verticals of the scheme, people looking to take its benefit could apply, but the petitioners had not; and other provisions had not been adopted in Chandigarh, due to its size.
Noticing that UT had not issued show-cause notices, the court stayed the demolition drive till October 28, while observing that UT can serve individual notices on the slum dwellers.
