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Supreme Court halts Jharkhand high court demolition order for three buildings in Jamshedpur
“The SC has stayed the January 14 HC order of demolition related to the 24 buildings, but the instant order is applicable only to the three people whose petitions were heard today. More SLPs by the remaining 21 building owners are expected to be filed in the SC during the week. The SC has also ordered the state government, East Singhbhum DC, Jamshedpur SDO, JNAC DMC, and petitioner Rakesh Jha to file their replies within the next four weeks,” senior advocate Devesh Ajmani told HT on Monday.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday stayed the Jharkhand high court’s (HC) January 14 directive ordering the demolition of deviated parts of 24 buildings in Jamshedpur, granting immediate relief to three building owners whose petitions were heard on Monday, even as the Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) had begun the demolition drive in Sakchi and Bistupur.
“The SC has stayed the January 14 HC order of demolition related to the 24 buildings, but the instant order is applicable only to the three people whose petitions were heard today. More SLPs by the remaining 21 building owners are expected to be filed in the SC during the week. The SC has also ordered the state government, East Singhbhum DC, Jamshedpur SDO, JNAC DMC, and petitioner Rakesh Jha to file their replies within the next four weeks,” senior advocate Devesh Ajmani told HT on Monday.
Prakash Jha, senior advocate representing one of the building owners, Tausif Ali, told HT on Monday that the SC bench on Monday heard at least three special leave petitions (SLPs), filed by Ali, Jawahar Vig, and Rajesh Chowdhary, out of about a dozen filed before it, challenging the HC order and praying for immediate relief. More SLPs by the remaining 21 building owners are expected to be filed during the week, which could potentially extend the stay to the other buildings.
“The SC bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta has stayed the HC’s January 14 order for demolishing parts of the three buildings with alleged deviations from the approved building plans and drawings. The SC has ordered that the status quo be maintained for these buildings until the final disposal of the petitions filed with the court,” Jha said.
“We have challenged the legality of the HC order of blanket demolition on a PIL, even though there is a statutory provision for adjudication. If we lose there, we can go to the tribunal, which was denied. We also cited the SC’s 2016 order in cases in Uttar Pradesh, where the SC had ruled that demolition should be the last option after adjudication and regularisation options. The Jharkhand government, too, had issued an ordinance for the regularisation of deviations with a fine,” Jha added.
Delhi-based senior lawyers D.S. Naidu, Mahendra Singh, and K. Sudarshan represented the building owners, while Prakash Jha, K.K. Ojha, and S. Gautam appeared as advocates on record.
East Singhbhum district deputy commissioner (DC) Karn Satyarthi stated that the petitioners have apprised him of the development, but they were waiting for the physical copy of the order.
“The petitioners have apprised me of the status quo order by the SC today on demolition. We have contacted the state lawyer, and he has confirmed the order. However, we are waiting for the hard copy of the SC order. We will have to stop demolition for the affected buildings once we get the order copy. We will see to it tomorrow,” Satyarthi told HT on Monday.
Meanwhile, Jamshedpur Small and Medium Builders’ Association (JSMBA) convenor Shiv Shankar Singh welcomed the SC order and urged the state government to regularise the deviations.
“We had taken the HC order with trust in the judiciary, and we also welcome the SC order today wholeheartedly. We pray to the state government to regularise the deviations as per its own ordinance. Such blanket demolition would devastate the city of Jamshedpur, as not only these buildings, but thousands of flats, quarters, private houses, and lakhs of people residing in them would be affected. The plots are so small, and houses are wall-to-wall adjacent to each other,” Singh told HT, confirming that the demolition drive was stopped on Monday evening.
Rakesh Jha, the original petitioner in the HC case on whose PIL the demolition order was issued, stated that this SC order was for only three building owners.
Earlier, two teams led by JNAC DMC Krishna Kumar had begun the demolition drive on Monday morning at Building No. 47 in Sakchi Baradwari locality, Patiala Building, and Hotel Ramdas in Bistupur.
