Demolition of 48,000 slums along railway line in Delhi on hold for now, Centre tells SC

The Union government on Monday told the Supreme Court that the Centre, Railways Ministry and Delhi government would sit together to find a solution within four weeks, following the order to demolish 48,000 'jhuggis' (slum dwellings) along railway lines in the national capital.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured a bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde that till a decision is taken, no jhuggis would be removed.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Ajay Maken and others, sought an order for status quo, which the court declined, in view of statement made by Mehta. Senior advocates Colin Gonsalves and K V Vishwanathan also appeared in the matter.

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The court will consider the matter after four weeks.

The top court's bench led by Justice Arun Mishra had on August 31 ordered the demolition within a period of three months in the case of M C Mehta, related to Delhi pollution.

In an application, Maken asked the top court to direct the Indian Railways, Delhi government and others to rehabilitate the slum dwellers prior to eviction or demolition of their jhuggis. He also sought a direction for complying to the provisions of the Delhi Slum and JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015 and the protocol (for removal of Jhuggis) in letter and spirit.

He said many of those who have been living over there for 30-40 years would be rendered homeless at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic wreaks havoc, which may prove to be a recipe for disaster.

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On August 31, the court gave a detailed hearing to Railways, Municipal Corporations etc who sought to dispossess the slum dwellers. However, the court completely ignored the affected and vulnerable population of slum dwellers by denying them an opportunity to be heard, he said.

Questioning the direction which said no court will grant stay in the demolition process, Maken said this amounted to grave obstruction in the right to access to justice.

With the directions, he said casualty would be greater than 48,000 shanties as more than 5,00,000 people, who contributed to the social and economic life of a city by working as sanitation workers, garbage collectors, domestic help, rickshaw pullers, labourers, would be directly affected.

Among the grounds, the applicants said it would be highly risky to demolish the hutments without prior rehabilitation as they will be forced to move from place to place in search of shelter and livelihood. "Needless, to say that even a small percentage of the displaced population if affected by Covid-19, then the same will prove to be a recipe for disaster in the current pandemic," the plea said.