Consult slum dwellers before evicting them: Delhi High Court to agencies

A bench of justice S Muralidhar and justice Vibhu Bakhru said the agencies such as DDA, the civic authorities and others should first conduct a survey and consult the dwellers before evicting the people there.

The Delhi high court on Monday said that “forced” and “unannounced” eviction of slum dwellers without following proper guidelines is contrary to the law.

The Delhi high court on Monday said that “forced” and “unannounced” eviction of slum dwellers without following proper guidelines is contrary to the law. (MINT)

A bench of justice S Muralidhar and justice Vibhu Bakhru said the agencies such as DDA, the civic authorities and others should first conduct a survey and consult the dwellers before evicting the people there.

The court also said that once a slum becomes eligible for rehabilitation, the land owning agencies would “cease” to view the dwellers as “illegal encroachers”.

“Forced eviction of jhuggi dwellers, unannounced, in co-ordination with the other agencies, and without compliance with the above steps, would be contrary to the law...,” the bench said.

The judgment came on a plea by Congress leader Ajay Maken who had challenged the eviction of the dwellers in Shakur Basti area in December 2015. In his plea filed through advocate Aman Panwar, Maken had demanded that railways and other authorities are restrained from carrying out demolition of the slum where a six-year-old girl had also lost her life.

In its 104-page judgment, the court said, “The right to housing is a bundle of rights not limited to a bare shelter over one‘s head. It includes the right to livelihood, right to health, right to education and right to food, including right to clean drinking water, sewerage and transport facilities.”

The court said that the key elements of the 2015 policy, which are in conformity with the decisions of the Supreme Court and the high court, would apply across the board to all bastis and jhuggis in the NCT of Delhi.

Highlighting the concept of “Right to City”, the court said that those living in the JJ clusters continue to contribute to the social and economic life of a city who cater to the basic amenities of an urban population and in the context of Delhi, would include sanitation workers, garbage collectors .