'Wholly unconstitutional': SC rules on bulldozer justice

Apex court says 'executive cannot become a judge'

- BHAVINI MISHRA

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that state governments could not demolish the house of a person accused or convicted of a crime citing their criminal background, saying "executive cannot become a judge", and that failure to follow due process would be dealt with the "heavy hand of the law".

The court observed that if a property was demolished only because a person was an accused, it would be "wholly unconstitutional". "The right to shelter is one of the facets of Article 21. Depriving such innocent people of their right to life by removing shelter from their heads, in our considered view, would be wholly unconstitutional," a Bench of Justices Gavai and Viswanathan said.

"The executive cannot become a judge and decide that a person accused is guilty and, therefore, punish him by demolishing his residential/commercial property/properties. Such an act of the executive would be transgressing its limits," the court said during hearing pleas challenging house demolitions by state governments in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In these cases, Muslim tenants were accused of committing crimes that triggered communal tensions.