Demolition of illegal construction is not to punish rioters: UP government in SC

New Delhi, Jun 23: Amid allegations of ”bulldozer politics“ under chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that no property in the state was demolished to punish people accused of participating in violent protests against remarks by two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on Prophet Mohammed.

 

 

 

The state clarified that bulldozers razed illegal constructions in accordance with municipal laws, and after providing a due opportunity to the violators.

 

 

 

Protests broke out in Kanpur and Prayagraj on June 3 and June 10 against now suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled party leader Naveen Jindal for their remarks. Subsequently, the UP government demolished three properties in these cities. Submitting its affidavit on Wednesday in response to the court notice issued on June 16, the state government justified the action by its municipal authorities. The government, in its affidavit, has taken the stand that these demolitions “had no relation to the riots”, and that the actions were taken as part of the ongoing demolition drive against encroachment and illegal construction under the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development Act, 1972. “It is humbly submitted that in so far as taking action against the persons accused in rioting, the state government is taking stringent steps against them in accordance with a completely different set of statutes,” the affidavit said, naming the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Indian Penal Code, the UP Gangster and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, the Prevention of Public Property Damages Act and the UP Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Property Act as pertinent laws to be invoked against the rioters. Contending that the two applications, filed by Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind asking that the UP government be restrained from any further demolition of properties, must be dismissed with a monetary penalty, the affidavit stated that the organization has “deliberately obfuscated the true facts to paint a nefarious picture of alleged malafide on the part of the administration”. “The petitioner (Jamiat) has attempted to give a malafide color to lawful action taken by the local development authorities as per the procedure established by law by cherry-picking one-sided media reporting of a few incidents and extrapolating sweeping allegations from the same against the state. The same, it is submitted, is completely false and misleading,” the affidavit stated, seeking the dismissal of the plea.

 

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It added that the state government takes strong exception to Jamiat’s “attempt to name the highest constitutional functionaries of the state and falsely color the local development authority’s lawful actions strictly complying with the UP Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973, as ‘extra-legal punitive measures’ against accused persons, targeting any particular religious community”