We all live in glass houses and no one has clean windows!

Governments are greedy—whether it is for power, pelf, or public wealth. Give them a land to helm, and they seek the world to overwhelm. Turn the gaze yonder, and the most powerful come into view. Turn it nearer home, and watch the executive straining every nerve and sinew!

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How else would one explain the Supreme Court coming into sharp focus for the second time running? The judgement came April 2.

“Prayagraj demolitions inhuman, illegal, shock conscience; orders ₹10 lakh for each,” screamed national headlines. At the receiving end of the Supreme Court’s wrath was the Yogi Adityanath government and the Prayagraj civic body. “The act of demolition was not only illegal but also violative of the most important fundamental right—the right to shelter,” ruled a Supreme Court bench of Justice AS Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan.

The harshest possible words flowed from the highest court of the land: “Unconstitutional, inhuman, this shocks our conscience, high-handed demolition—whither due process of law?” The anguish was writ large in the judgment, enough to make heads hang and hearts hurt. Did it?

The homes of an advocate, a professor, and three others—including two women—were razed by authorities March 7, 2021, following a mistaken identification that these stood on land belonging to the late gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed. The houses had been demolished at a day’s notice, with the notice simply affixed to the walls of the properties.