Demolition notice to slum dwellers against natural justice: Uttarakhand HC

Uttarakhand High Court has stayed the razing of homes of slum dwellers in the Vikas Nagar area of Dehradun, saying the demolition notices contravened the principles of natural justice.

Hearing a PIL on Saturday owing to the urgency of the matter, a division bench of Chief Justice G. Narendar and Justice Ashish Naithani said the demolition notices were issued without giving the residents an opportunity to be heard.

The bench ruled that the demolition be stayed until further orders from the court.

The applicants are residents of different villages of Vikas Nagar in Dehradun district and lawful citizens of the country, according to the PIL. They received the notices on 5 April, saying that their properties were to be demolished as they were built on water bodies, seasonal streams and drains. It was claimed in the petition that the administration served the notices without verifying the property details.

Most of the residents who received the notices are illiterate and people from the lower strata of society with no proper knowledge about the outcomes, it was alleged.

It was also claimed in the petition that those served with the notices had valid property documents to prove their ownership and that most of them had nothing to do with the water bodies and the streams.

Satellite images of the area show that those who received the demolition notices reside far from the 'seasonal streams, drains and water bodies'.

It was also said that the applicants would file property documents proving their ownership, according to government records, before the high court by 15 April.