The Supreme Court on Tuesday criticised the Uttar Pradesh government and the Prayagraj Development Authority for demolishing the homes of a lawyer, a professor, and three others in 2021. The court called the demolitions “illegal" and “insensitive" and directed the authorities to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to each affected person within six weeks.

A bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan expressed strong disapproval, stating that the demolitions were carried out in a high-handed manner.

“These cases shock our conscience. The residential premises of the appellants have been high-handedly demolished," Justice Oka said. He further added that the court would officially record the action as illegal.

“We will record this whole thing as illegal, and we will say that as far as rights in the land are concerned, we are not offering any comment. And fix compensation of 10 lakhs in each case. That is the only way to do this. So that this authority will always remember to follow due process," he said.

The court also mentioned that the right to shelter is protected under Article 21 of the Constitution. “The authorities, and especially the development authority, must remember that the right to shelter is also an integral part of Article 21 of the Constitution of India," the order stated.

Authorities accused of acting without following the law

The Supreme Court had earlier criticised the Uttar Pradesh government for demolishing houses in Prayagraj without following legal procedures, saying it sent a “shocking and wrong signal.”

Advocate Zulfiqar Haider, Professor Ali Ahmed, and others went to the Allahabad High Court to challenge the demolition of their houses. However, the High Court did not accept their plea. They said that the government wrongly targeted their homes because it thought the land belonged to Atiq Ahmed, a gangster and politician who was killed in a police encounter in 2023.

The residents had received a notice on March 6, 2021, about some construction in Lukerganj, Prayagraj. But now, the Supreme Court has decided that demolishing their houses was not legal.

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