Nagpur Civic Body Tenders "Unconditional Apology" For Defying Supreme Court Directive & Demolishing Houses Of Riots Accused

The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Tuesday offered an "unconditional apology" to the Bombay High Court for defying the orders of the Supreme Court in Re: Directions in the matter of Demolition of Structures, and demolishing the alleged illegal portions of the houses of the accused in the recent communal violence case.

The NMC filed its affidavit before a division bench led by Justice Nitin Sambre, stating that it was unaware of the Supreme Court's ruling as neither the Maharashtra government nor the Nagpur civic body has issued the mandatory guidelines as directed by the Supreme Court.

In an affidavit filed through Kamlesh Chavan, Executive Engineer (Slums), NMC, the civic body apologised to the HC for demolishing the structures of Jehrunissa Shamim Khan, mother of prime accused Fahim Khan, in the recent communal violence.

"At the outset, I am tendering an unconditional apology to this Court to have made this Court to observe that the authorities have acted against the petitioner's unauthorised construction in contravention to the judgment of the Supreme Court," the affidavit stated.

The affidavit further stated that neither NMC nor its officers would ever intentionally disobey the orders of the HC or the Supreme Court or even the lower courts.

The civic body claimed to be "unaware" of the directions of the Supreme Court issued on November 13, 2014, wherein a bench headed by Justice Bhushan Gavai had held that the executive cannot demolish the houses/properties of persons only on the ground that they are accused or convicted in a crime.

"The deponent of this affidavit is unaware of the directions issued by the Supreme Court as no such guidelines or circular have been issued either under the Maharashtra Slum Areas (Improvement, Clearance & Redevelopment) Act, 1971 or by the Town Planning Department of the NMC, as such no such circular have been issued by the Maharashtra government to the effect of the said guidelines by the Supreme Court," the affidavit reads.

The affidavit highlighted the fact that the Supreme Court had ordered all the Chief Secretaries of all the States and also the Union Territories to issue circulars to all the District Magistrates and Local Authorities intimating them about the directions of the Supreme Court.

"As on date, no such direction have been received by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation and hence the said guidelines cannot be circulated by the civic authorities and hence the present deponent continued to follow the statutory provisions of the Slums Act, 1971," the affidavit stated.

Further, the affidavit stated that the Police Authorities had on March 21 sought details from the NMC regarding the properties of the rioters and had asked the civic authorities to take action against the properties of the rioters, if the same are illegal. Thereafter, the civic authorities noted that the petitioners could not submit the "sanctioned plan" of their houses, which they (NMC officials) prima facie, found that the petitioners did not construct the structures as per a sanctioned plan from the NMC.

Therefore, a show cause notice was issued to them giving a deadline of a day to respond to the show cause notice.

"I say and submit that in the present case, me and my officers had not acted with any malafide intention against the petitioners or their properties but acted in accordance with the prevailing situation and strictly in accordance with the statutory provisions of the Slums Act, 1971," the affidavit stated.

Background:

The judges were hearing the petitions filed by one Jehrunissa Shamim Khan, mother of prime accused Fahim Khan, who received a notice from the NMC for demolishing her 2-storey house located Sanjay Bagh Colony in Yashodhara Nagar area in Nagpur.

Besides, Jehrunissa, the judges also considered the petitions filed by two more persons related to the other accused in the riots case.

The bench noted that despite Khan and others challenging the said notice and mentioning the same before it on Monday morning (March 24), the authorities pulled down the house amid heavy security and drone surveillance in the entire area, on Monday afternoon.

The bench led by Justice Sambre had on March 24 slammed the NMC for its "high-handedness" in demolishing the structures and had therefore stayed the said demolitions.