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Rs 2 lakh will be cut from tehsildar's salary for ‘bulldozer justice', says Orissa HC on demolition of community centre
Use of demolition as a tool of enforcement without procedural compliance transforms a lawful act into a coercive one, the Orissa High Court said Wednesday as it ordered departmental proceedings months after a decades-old community centre was allegedly demolished against court orders.
A single-judge bench of Justice SK Panigrahi was hearing a petition by residents of Balipur Mouza village in Odisha's Cuttack district who were challenging eviction proceedings initiated against the property that administration claims stood on common village land. In its order on June 20, the court slammed the tehsildar's demolition of the property despite two high court orders preventing such a move. It also ordered that part of the compensation be recovered from the official's salary.
According to the court, the demolition, which occurred on December 24 last year, violated Supreme Court's guidelines issued in November. The speed and secrecy with which it was undertaken creates an impression 'not of public administration but of covert operation', the court said.
'When the state proceeds to demolish a structure in that window, knowing that the order has not yet been passed, knowing that judicial scrutiny is underway, it raises a serious concern. This is not how institutions committed to constitutional governance are expected to behave,' read the court order.
The facts of this case echo a growing and troubling pattern commonly referred to as 'bulldozer justice', where executive power, backed by machinery rather than reason, supplants legal process, the court said. It also voiced concern that the behaviour of the official could set a dangerous precedent.
'The conduct of the official reflects a troubling pattern where legal process is treated as optional,' said the court.
The court ordered a compensation of Rs 10 lakh in the case, saying that of this, Rs 2 lakh will be recovered from the tehsildar's salary. The balance of Rs 8 lakh will be paid by the state.
The court also directed departmental proceedings against the tehsildar and asked the chief secretary of Odisha to inform all revenue officials and municipal authorities in the state of the Supreme Court's guidelines on demolition.
According to court documents, the structure had existed since 1985, even undergoing reconstruction from government funds 2016-18. In July last year, the Athgarh sub-collector's court ordered the demolition that the tehsildar carried out.
In its order last November, the Supreme Court laid down that all demolitions should follow due process, which includes giving a mandatory 15-day notice period.
