Violence in Bahraich: HC suspends its bulldozing action and grants 15 days to the accused to respond to demolition notices

In a big relief to those who have received notices to demolish illegal structures erected on the Kundasar-Mahasi-Nanpara-Maharajganj road in Bahraich, the Allahabad High Court on Sunday extended the deadline for filing its responses by 15 days.

The Lucknow court said the affected persons could file their responses to the notices within 15 days and directed the state authorities to examine the said responses and pass a reasoned order thereon.

The bench has set October 23 as the next hearing date in the case.

A bench comprising Justices AR Masoodi and Subhash Vidyarthi passed the order on a public interest plea (PIL) filed by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights.

At the request of the petitioner, the special bench was constituted on Sunday evening and passed the interim order, thereby stopping the state authorities who were preparing to demolish the illegal structures as soon as possible.

The plea contends that the Uttar Pradesh government has illegally issued demolition notices and its action to launch the demolition drive violates the Supreme Court’s recent directives, banning bulldozer action except in certain cases.

On behalf of the state government, Chief Standing Solicitor (CSC) Shailendra Kumar Singh argued that the PIL was not maintainable.

After hearing the matter, the court said, “Leaving all aspects of the matter open, what pricks the conscience of this court is the issuance of notices to submit the reply within a short span of three days . As for the number of houses at kilometer 38 of the Kundasar-Mahasi-Nanpara-Maharajganj district road whose construction has been duly sanctioned, that too is not much evident from the notices, which may require clarification. “Without observing anything substantive at this stage, as already observed, we are granting the CSC a period of three days to obtain complete instructions,” he adds.

“The situation regarding the category of the road and the applicable standards may be clarified on the next date,” the court said.

It is expected that those who received the notifications will participate in the procedure in the meantime.

“We further anticipate that if they file their responses to the notices within a period of 15 days from today, the competent authority will consider and decide the same by passing an oral and reasoned order, which will be communicated to the injured parties.” added the court.

Ram Gopal Mishra (22) of Rehua Mansoor village died due to a gunshot wound he sustained on October 13 during a communal clash in a village in Bahraich district over music played during a procession.

Notices have been issued to 23 establishments, including 20 belonging to Muslims, in the area by the public works department (PWD).

The PWD carried out inspections in the Maharajganj area on Friday and took action at 20-25 houses, including that of Abdul Hamid, one of the men accused of Mishra’s murder.

The notices were served under the Road Control Act 1964.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)