New Delhi: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a stay on demolition of illegal houses built on forest land in Faridabad's Khori village located in the Aravalli forests. The plea had contended that demolition will violate their right to life, their fundamental right under the constitution. "If a person is evicted from the place where he is riding unauthorisedly and his house is demolished, then he will certainly lose his livelihood too, for to work he must live somewhere," read the plea. The demolition of houses in the village began on July 14, after the Supreme Court on June 7 had ordered the clearance of the settlement July 19. On the third day of the demolition on July 16, over 700 houses were demolished using bulldozers. The petitioners also cited the building of government schools and government parks which validates their establishment.
The bench comprising of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Sanjiv Khanna are seized of the case and had ordered demolition saying that there cannot be any compromise with forest land and any new habilitation will be considered once they leave the land. The court had lashed out at the residents for not leaving even after an year of order and had said that if they would have given their documents earlier they would have been rehabilitated by now. The matter will be heard again on July 19.
READ: UN Human Rights expresses concern over Khori evictions
Meanwhile, United Nations Human Rights experts have asked the Indian government to reconsider its decision to evict the people. The UN Special Procedures wing took to the microblogging site tweeting, "UN experts call on India to halt evictions of some 100,000 people that began this week in midst of monsoon rains. India must urgently review its plans for razing Khori Gaon & consider regularizing the settlement so as not to leave anyone homeless."
