Delhi HC rejects petition to halt demolition of Pakistani Hindu refugee camp in Majnu Ka Tila

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2 days ago

The Delhi High Court has rejected a petition seeking to stop the Delhi Development Authority from demolishing a camp set up by Hindu refugees from Pakistan in the national capital's Majnu Ka Tila area along the Yamuna river till an alternative plot of land is allotted to the residents.
Justice Dharmesh Sharma on Friday dismissed a petition by a person named Ravi Ranjan Singh seeking orders to the authority to allot the refugees a different plot as per the Delhi Slum and Jhuggi Jhopri Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy before demolishing their tenements.
This policy aims to provide permanent in-situ housing to slum dwellers in Delhi.
Singh, in his petition, also sought directions for embankments to be built along the Yamuna to protect the camp, which houses around 800 residents, and the other similar tenements and religious structures in the area, while also maintaining the sanctity of the river, Live Law reported.
The petitioner noted that the Citizenship Amendment Act was framed with the idea of providing citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from neighbouring countries to help them escape religious persecution, The Hindu reported.
The Act is aimed to provide a fast track to citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and have entered the country by December 31, 2014.
In Friday's order, the court said that Pakistani refugees cannot be rehabilitated under the Delhi Slum and Jhuggi Jhopri Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy 'on account of their foreign nationality status'.
The judge told the petitioner as well as the other refugees to firstly acquire Indian citizenship by way of registration or naturalisation by submitting an application under the Citizenship Amendment Act.
'Needless to state, the effect of the acceptance of such an application would be that the aggrieved refugees shall be deemed citizens of India and would be able to enjoy all rights and benefits available to any ordinary citizen of India,' the order said.
The judge, however, said that even Indian citizens could not claim alternate allotment as an 'absolute right', particularly in cases where the land they occupied fell under specially prohibited areas like Zone 'O' in Delhi, which refers to the floodplains along the Yamuna.
'At the cost of repetition, it is an admitted position that the camp set up by the refugees in question is situated in the Yamuna floodplains area,' the court said, further citing a 2015 order by the National Green Tribunal directing governmental agencies to repossess areas in the floodplains that were under unauthorised occupation and take steps to restore the ecological health of the Yamuna.
'Given the critical condition of the Yamuna River, this court unhesitatingly finds that no interference with the ongoing restoration and rejuvenation efforts of the river can be countenanced at the petitioner's instance,' Sharma said.
He added that 'this stance holds irrespective of any humanitarian or sympathetic considerations advanced before the court' as it would obstruct and delay the implementation of public projects.
The order added that the court had attempted to engage with the concerned authorities to facilitate the rehabilitation and relocation of the refugees.
'However, these efforts have been unfruitful, seemingly due to a classic case of bureaucratic buck-passing, particularly on the part of the respondent no. 2/Union of India,' it said. 'Nevertheless, this court cannot undertake the exercise of framing a policy to ameliorate the plight of the refugees.'
The court vacated an interim order passed on March 13, 2024. This had granted Singh interim relief in the matter and issued directions to the Delhi Development Authority to refrain from taking any coercive action against him, Live Law reported.