The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has offered an "unconditional apology" to the Bombay High Court after admitting it had defied the Supreme Court's order on demolition of structures while pulling down portions of houses belonging to people accused in a recent communal violence case.
The apology came during the hearing of petitions before a division bench headed by Justice Nitin Sambre, where the civic body submitted an affidavit explaining its position. In the affidavit, filed by Kamlesh Chavan, who serves as Executive Engineer (Slums) at NMC, the civic body clarified that it was unaware of the Supreme Court’s specific directions on the matter as neither the Maharashtra Government nor the Nagpur civic administration had issued the mandatory guidelines prescribed by the apex court.
At the outset, I am tendering an unconditional apology to this Court to have made this Court to observe that the authorities have acted against the petitioner’s unauthorised construction in contravention to the judgment of the Supreme Court, the affidavit stated.
The NMC also stressed that neither the civic body nor its officers would ever intentionally disobey orders issued by the High Court, Supreme Court, or any lower courts.
The affidavit referred to the Supreme Court ruling from November 13, 2014, where a bench headed by Justice Bhushan Gavai had clearly laid down that authorities cannot demolish properties of individuals merely because they are accused or convicted in a criminal case.
“The deponent of this affidavit is unaware of the directions issued by the Supreme Court as no such guidelines or circular have been issued either under the Maharashtra Slum Areas (Improvement, Clearance & Redevelopment) Act, 1971 or by the Town Planning Department of the NMC, as such no such circular have been issued by the Maharashtra government to the effect of the said guidelines by the Supreme Court,” the affidavit clarified.
It was further highlighted in the affidavit that the Supreme Court had specifically directed all Chief Secretaries of States and Union Territories to circulate the directions to District Magistrates and local authorities. The NMC stated it had not yet received any such communication.
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“As on date, no such direction have been received by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation and hence the said guidelines cannot be circulated by the civic authorities and hence the present deponent continued to follow the statutory provisions of the Slums Act, 1971,” the affidavit noted.
The NMC also detailed the sequence of events that led to the demolition. The affidavit mentioned that on March 21, police had approached the civic body seeking property details of the accused involved in the riots. The police specifically asked whether the properties were illegal and requested the civic body to take appropriate action if so.
Following this, the NMC officials checked the documents of the concerned properties and found that the owners, including the petitioners, could not present a valid "sanctioned plan" for the structures in question. Based on this, the civic body issued a show-cause notice, giving the owners one day to respond.
“I say and submit that in the present case, me and my officers had not acted with any malafide intention against the petitioners or their properties but acted in accordance with the prevailing situation and strictly in accordance with the statutory provisions of the Slums Act, 1971,” the affidavit further added.
The issue came to light when Jehrunissa Shamim Khan, the mother of the prime accused Fahim Khan, filed a petition challenging the demolition notice issued for her two-storey house in Sanjay Bagh Colony, Yashodhara Nagar, Nagpur. Two more petitioners, relatives of other accused persons, also approached the court with similar complaints.
The bench observed that even though Khan and others had informed the court about the demolition notices on the morning of March 24, the civic body went ahead with the demolition the same afternoon, deploying heavy police security and even using drone surveillance during the operation.
During the hearing, the bench led by Justice Sambre criticized the NMC for what it described as "high-handedness" in carrying out the demolition despite the ongoing legal challenge and ordered an immediate stay on any further demolition activities.
