Deal with them humanely: SC stays razing of Sarojini jhuggis

New Delhi: Staying the demolition of jhuggis in Sarojini Nagar here, for the time being, the Supreme Court on Monday told the Union government to deal with dwellers in this area humanly, adding that as a "model government", "you can't simply throw them away" without putting in place a policy to rehabilitate them.

During the hearing, a bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy heard submissions by Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, who appeared for one of the petitioners, a girl living in a jhuggi in the area and set to appear for her 10th board examination on April 26.

With the protection granted by the Delhi High Court set to end on Monday, the Supreme Court took up the matter and after hearing the submissions took it on record that the Additional Solicitor General had assured of no coercive action till the next date of hearing.

The Union Ministry of Urban Development had on April 4 issued eviction/demolition notices to all residents of the around 200 'jhuggis' in the area, asking them to vacate the place within one week, after which residents approached courts.

The petition before the Supreme Court was to challenge a Division Bench (Delhi HC) order refusing to interfere with a Single Judge Bench order which had denied the relief of rehabilitation to the residents.

Significantly, the Centre, represented by Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, insisted that many people in the jhuggis had just moved there and that this does not guarantee them the right to be rehabilitated.

To this, the Bench went through the submissions and pointed out that residents have documents from bodies like the Election Commission that show they have been living at the very same address for decades — from at least 1995/96.

Having some documents where for election they've been enrolled doesn't confer them right", ASG Nataraj said, further pleading that they stay not be applied to all jhuggis but only to the petitioners.

At this point, the Supreme Court asked the ASG not to precipitate the issue and Justice Joseph said, "Look at your notice, what we've found in impugned notice is that you've said hand over the government land. People from all over India, go occupy lands, something they don't have a choice with. They can't afford the rates."

The matter has been posted for next hearing on May 2.