Ghaziabad: Allahabad high court quashes GDA’s demolition order, terms it ‘illegal’ and ‘vague’

The Allahabad HC quashed GDA's demolition order against Krishnaveer's house, stating it violated natural justice principles and was illegal.

On March 7, Krishnaveer (single name), was at his house in Basantpur Sainthli village in Ghaziabad, when a Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) team arrived at his door with a bulldozer, claiming that his was illegal and they were there to dismantle it. Alarmed, Krishnaveer moved the Allahabad high court, which in the first hearing on March 18 found that the house was built before the area got notified under GDA jurisdiction, and quashed the demolition order.

Ghaziabad: Allahabad high court quashes GDA’s demolition order, terms it ‘illegal’ and ‘vague’

The court also said that GDA’s demolition order was “manifestly illegal being in gross violation of principles of natural justice and also vague.” Krishnaveer said that his house is built on khasra (land chunk) number 182 in Basantpur Sainthali, near the Delhi-Meerut Road. Since the land was previously under gram panchayat, plots there do not have a serial number. GDA’s media coordinator, Rudresh Shukla, said that plots there are identified only by their land chunk number.

He said that on March 7, a GDA team came to his house with a bulldozer and told him that the house was illegally built on land that has been under GDA’s control since August 4, 2022. The team said GDA had previously given Krishnaveer a show cause notice to remove the illegal construction as well as an opportunity to contest the alleged illegality in a hearing. When Krishnaveer did not respond to the notice, GDA ordered the house’s demolition, the team told him.

Krishnaveer told the team that in the first place, he built his house before August 4, 2022, when the land in question was not under GDA but under the gram panchayat. Secondly, he was not served any show cause notice or intimation of a hearing or the demolition order, he told the team.

The officials showed him the show cause notice issued on March 27, 2024 and dated October 13, 2023. The notice gave Krishnaveer 25 days’ time to remove alleged illegal constructions over khasra (land chunk) number 182 in Basantpur Sainthali. The notice was issued under Section 27 of the UP Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973, which primarily deals with demolition of buildings with constructions made in contravention of the master plan or without approval.

The officials then showed him the demolition order, which said Krishnaveer had not appeared at a hearing to contest the allegation that he had illegally built a house.

The team, however, could not demolish the house due to opposition from Krishnaveer and his family, and locals. Krishnaveer then filed a petition in the Allahabad high court.

“We have gone through the impugned order, and we find that it does not indicate the date on which show cause notice was issued to the petitioners nor the date on which the notice was issued to the petitioners intimating them of date of hearing. Even the date on which hearing was fixed has not been mentioned in the impugned order,” the high court said in its order on March 18.

The counsels of the petitioners also told the court that Khasra number 182 of the village was earlier part of Gram Panchayat, and it was included within the development area of GDA by a notification dated August 4, 2022.

“In such circumstances, we are of the opinion that impugned order is manifestly illegal being in gross violation of principles of natural justice and also vague. Accordingly, the impugned order dated October 13, 2023, is hereby quashed, leaving it open to the respondent — development authority to proceed strictly in accordance with law,” the court said in its order.

GDA’s media coordinator, Rudresh Shukla, said, “We will comply with the directions of the high court, and will also seek a process through which the authority can proceed in the case.”