NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court has said a survey may be needed of residents of a slum in the Okhla area facing demolition action by DDA. Refusing to stay the demolition process, HC on Friday underlined that the “main question is about the survey” of the area before it can intervene to halt a demolition drive.
“The basti might be on the list (of those eligible for rehabilitation) but who are the residents there, that’s the question. How do we make that determination? The main question is about the survey. It has to be demarcated,” a bench of Chief Justice Devendra Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela pointed out to the petitioner counsel while hearing an appeal filed by the locals. The slum dwellers, under the aegis of an organisation “Dhobi Ghat Jhuggi Adhikar Manch”, challenged a single judge’s decision to dismiss their plea against the demolition of a slum in the Okhla Dhobi Ghat area, saying it was illegal and posed a significant threat to the ecologically sensitive floodplain.
DDA has maintained the that the colony in question is not protected under the JJ Clusters List for rehabilitation published by Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board.
Justice Dharmesh Sharma had earlier concluded that the “so-called members” of the petitioner were not entitled to any compensation or rehabilitation as they were “rank trespassers” who repeatedly returned to the site, which was acquired by the DDA for developing a biodiversity park. “Since the subject site was acquired by DDA for the channelisation and protection of Yamuna, the removal of the petitioner union from the subject site serves the greater public interest,” the court noted.
It also cited DUSIB Act, 2010, and a 2015 policy, observing not every slum dweller or JJ Basti was automatically entitled to alternate housing.
“The JJ Basti in question is not part of the 675 notified JJ Bastis listed by DUSIB, further establishing that the residents of the petitioner union are occupying the area illegally,” the court observed in its verdict. The encroachment in the area, the court said, disrupted the natural flow of water and, according to experts, recurring floods in Delhi were primarily driven by such unlawful settlements on drains and the riverbed.
Dismissing the plea, it also imposed Rs 10,000 as costs on the petitioner organisation that claimed the Dhobi Ghat jhuggi cluster existed since the 1990s, but on Sept 23, 2020, the police asked its residents to vacate their shelters owing to a proposed demolition the following day.
