In a breather to the residents faced with demolition of their dwelling units in east Delhi, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to put on hold for a week its ongoing demolishing drive of unauthorised constructions in Vishwas Nagar area of East Delhi to enable residents to relocate themselves.
The vacation bench of Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Sanjay Karol, however, refused to interfere with the Delhi High Court’s order permitting the DDA to go ahead with the removal of the encroachments.
“If they don’t vacate by May 29, it would be open to DDA to resume their demolition activities. We order that for a period of seven days no demolition activity shall be continued,” the bench said in its order.
The High Court had allowed the razing of over 800 alleged illegal dwelling units built on DDA land at Vishwas Nagar area.
The top court asked DDA to halt for a week its demolition drive on humanitarian grounds to enable residents, mostly slum dwellers, to vacate the area on their own.
The top court directed the lawyer for the DDA to communicate to the authorities during the day to immediately stall the demolition drive.
The bench also sought response from the DDA by the second week of July, on the issue of rehabilitation of those whose premises are being demolished.
The top court said that it will consider in July the issue whether the residents, who are sought to be uprooted from their dwelling units, are entitled for rehabilitation by the land-owning agency either under the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board Act or any other law.
The top court order came on a petition filed by some residents of the Kasturba Nagar area falling under Vishwas Nagar locality, challenging the demolition notices issued by the DDA on May 18.
On March 14, the Delhi High Court had refused to stall the demolition move of the DDA while agreeing with the plea of the land owning agency that the residents were encroachers.