Allahabad High Court (file photo).
The Allahabad High Court has banned the demolition of more than 100 houses in Dibiapur, Auraiya. The demolition work was to be done on September 14. In view of this, the advocates on behalf of the petitioner made a special request to the Chief Justice and sought permission to hear the case. On which the Chief Justice constituted a special bench of Justices SD Singh and D Ramesh late in the evening. While hearing the case late in the evening, the bench has banned the demolition of houses.
Senior advocate Amarendra Nath Singh and advocate Ajay Kumar Mishra, representing petitioner Satya Prakash and others, told the court that on September 9, District Magistrate Auraiya had pasted notices on people’s houses asking them to remove the encroachment. An announcement was also made after this and preparations were underway to demolish the building on 14th September.
An urgent hearing was requested
Seeing the haste of the administration to demolish the building, the petitioner placed the matter before the High Court. Requested an immediate hearing from the Chief Justice. After this, the special bench sitting for the hearing stayed the proceedings. Several facts have also been placed before the Court on behalf of the petitioner.
It was argued by the advocate that the petitioner was living on the Irrigation Department land in 1968. Rent was also collected from them till 1993. Meanwhile, on a PIL, the High Court sought a spot report from the administration. The PIL stated that the irrigation department’s land has been illegally occupied. After receiving the notice from the High Court, the District Magistrate ordered the demolition of the building.
50-60 houses have been demolished
Earlier too, 50-60 houses were demolished in Auraiya to widen Kanauj road while the case of others was pending in court. The High Court had earlier asked the petitioner to submit a report in this matter before the authorities. which were canceled by the authorities on 4 May 2024 and 20 May 2024.
DM sent a notice
After this, the District Magistrate pasted demolition notices on all the houses. The next hearing of this case has been directed to be presented in the regular court on 17th September. After the demolition notice, the people living in the houses were worried about where they would go with their belongings. Now the residents have got immediate relief.