More harm than good: Muslim panel moves Supreme Court over Nuh bulldozer action

A day after the Punjab and Haryana High Court stalled the demolition drive in Haryana's Nuh, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The Muslim panel filed a plea seeking directions for rehabilitation of people whose homes were razed as part of the bulldozer action following violence in Nuh on July 31.

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind in its petition said that bulldozer action caused "more harm than good", and the future of the affected residents remains uncertain.

Seeking compensation for the people whose houses were demolished, the Muslim body in its plea said, “The Punjab and Haryana High Court, acting on its own, has stopped the brutal bulldozer operation on Muslim properties in Nuh, but no order has been issued for the rehabilitation, compensation and transitional stay of the residents of about six and a half hundred houses demolished illegally."

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind also said that no order had been issued to take action against the "erring officers". The plea stated that no prior notice or warnings were given by the civic and government authorities of Haryana, before razing the houses.

"The constructions which have been demolished left its residents stranded with no shelter or place to live and individuals who lost their place of work now have no way to earn a livelihood," the plea further stated.

The Muslim body sought a procedure wherein affected residents can get shelters and jobs. "There needs to be a strict procedure wherein the same can be done by a transitional method without being violative of an individual’s personal rights," the plea said.

The Muslim body called the bulldozer action illegal, and said that the constructions were razed based on allegations of stone pelting.

“Bulldozer operations are illegal, no matter whether bulldozers run on the property of people of any religion. The bulldozing of houses of the alleged accused or simply because stones were allegedly pelted from such a building is like punishment before conviction, which is legally wrong," the plea said.

"Since demolition has become a growing trend in the country, it is of vital importance that there is a law or at bare minimum a set of guidelines, that should be followed for demolition of alleged illegal constructions," the plea further stated.

The petition further states that the Supreme Court stayed demolition operations in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat and other states last year.