Jahangirpuri demolition drive: SC orders status quo

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the status quo in connection with a demolition drive in Delhi’s violence-hit Jahangirpuri and said it will take up the matter a day later.

“Okay, we order status quo. Let the matter be taken up tomorrow [Thursday] along with the other matter,” Chief Justice of India N V Ramana said.

The other matter is a petition filed by the Muslim clerical organisation Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind against employing bulldozers to demolish properties of those suspected to be involved in criminal incidents.

Ramana issued the order after senior advocates Dushyant Dave, Kapil Sibal, PV Surendranath, and Prashant Bhushan mentioned the matter before him.

Dave called the demolition drive completely illegal demolition as no notice was given to anyone and nobody was heard. “We have moved an application.”

The matter was mentioned in the Supreme Court amid heavy police and paramilitary forces’ deployment in Jahangirpuri ahead of Wednesday’s anti-encroachment drive.

The drive was scheduled a day after Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi chief Adesh Gupta wrote to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and asked it to identify illegal constructions of “rioters” in Jahangirpuri and demolish them using bulldozers.

Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh called the removal of illegal encroachment a “routine exercise.”

The civic body on Tuesday requested the Delhi Police to provide at least 400 security personnel to maintain law and order during the two-day drive days communal violence in the area left eight police personnel and a resident injured.