No ethnic cleansing, demolition drive as per law: Haryana informs high court

As the case came up for hearing before the division bench of Justices Arun Palli and Jagmohan Bansal Friday, Haryana’s Additional Advocate General Deepak Sabharwal informed court that due procedure established under the law was followed. “We apprised the court that it is not at all a case of ethnic cleansing and the government never works like this. For the state, all are equal. Entire procedure followed before the demolition was carried out,” Sabharwal later told reporters.

The Haryana government also sought more time to file a written reply before the court, he said. The bench adjourned the case to August 18, saying the matter, along with other petitions, be placed before the first division bench of the chief justice as per the high court rules.

Justices G S Sandhawalia and Harpreet Kaur Jeevan had on Monday halted the demolition drive after taking suo motu cognizance of some news reports.

“Apparently, without any demolition orders and notices, the law and order problem is being used as a ruse to bring down buildings without following the procedure established by law,” the court had then said.

“The issue also arises whether the buildings belonging to a particular community are being brought down under the guise of law and order problem and an exercise of ethnic cleansing is being conducted by the State,” it added.
The court had also directed the Haryana government to furnish an affidavit on the number of buildings demolished in two weeks in Nuh and Gurugram, and whether any notice was issued before the demolition.

Several houses and other buildings were bulldozed in Nuh, days after a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession was targeted there on July 31. Five people, including two home guards, were killed in the Nuh violence, which later spread to adjoining Gurugram where an imam was murdered in an attack on a mosque. The Nuh administration maintained that the bulldozed buildings were illegal and notices had been sent to them.