Final Up to date: February 23, 2024, 15:54 IST
The Bombay HC stated justice beneath the Structure should imply the appropriate to count on honest therapy from an administrative authority and, if not, the appropriate to method a court docket. (Picture for illustration: Getty)
The Bombay HC directed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority to not problem eviction notices scheduled for the weekends, as courts are inaccessible to affected people on these days
The Bombay Excessive Court docket has just lately directed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority to not problem eviction notices scheduled for weekends, because the courts should not accessible to affected people on these days. It additionally noticed that slum residents are people and “shouldn’t be handled like items on a chessboard”.
“Even when a statute prescribes durations of 24 hours, 36 hours or 72 hours, it doesn’t imply that the authority has to present solely that interval to vacate. We now suggest to take the freedom of issuing a path relevant to all authorities in all places that no notices for eviction are to be given mentioning solely hours. A particular date should be talked about, and that date can’t be over a weekend when courts are unavailable to the affected individuals,” the order acknowledged.
It added: “Justice beneath our Structure should imply the appropriate to count on honest therapy from an administrative authority and, if not, the appropriate to method a court docket for redressal. Justice can’t be an empty promise.”
The division bench of the excessive court docket, comprising Justices GS Patel and Kamal Khata, additionally noticed that the slum dwellers are people and shouldn’t be handled like items on a chessboard.
“What we fail to grasp is how the SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority), which is charged with taking care of the welfare of slum dwellers, can probably resolve after 18 or 20 years that seven days is sufficient to uproot total households and households. These are human beings; they’ve households; they don’t seem to be items on a chessboard that may be moved round and even swept off. The very last thing we wish to hear is that after cash is flung at these individuals, their considerations and their very humanity are immaterial,” the order stated.
The court docket was within the strategy of listening to an attraction, which was the project of a single-judge bench alongside two different petitions assigned to a division bench. All three petitions contested the discover issued on February 7 beneath sections 33 and 38 of the Maharashtra Slum Areas (Enchancment, Clearance and Redevelopment) Act, 1971, requiring them to vacate the premises inside seven days. The deadline was February 18, which occurred to be a Sunday.
All three instances have been initially filed earlier than the Apex Grievance Redressal Committee (AGRC), however this was unavailable. The HC registry conveyed this info to the division bench on Saturday night.
Moreover, the Chief Justice, who was away on an official occasion, needed to be contacted to problem an administrative order transferring the petition initially filed earlier than the single-judge bench to the division bench.
The HC convened on-line and the counsels of the SRA have been with out directions. Consequently, the court docket stayed the notices issued. It additionally directed the AGRC to convene at 5 pm to think about the applying for staying the notices, additional directing it to supply a signed order by 10.30 am on February 22.
The HC additionally cautioned AGRC members that failure to conform may result in contempt proceedings being initiated towards them. “We make it clear that there isn’t any query seeking to the comfort of the members of the AGRC within the info that we now have narrated above. If there may be non-compliance, we is not going to hesitate to make use of powers together with these in contempt towards these serving bureaucrats. We aren’t involved with their availability or different prior commitments. All these different commitments will wait until Friday, February 23,” the order acknowledged.