Mehrauli demolition: Delhi HC asks DUSIB to explain why 400 jhuggi cluster was removed from notified list

While continuing the status quo on the demolition action, Justice Arora asked DUSIB to give its reasons for deleting the cluster from its list, which it was earlier a part of. The HC thereafter directed both DDA and DUSIB to file its affidavit by February 21. It further directed the Archaeological Survey of India to also file an affidavit in the matter by the same date, listing the matter on February 28. The DUSIB had informed the court today that the cluster was earlier a part of the list but it has now been removed.

When the matter was heard on February 10, advocate Anuprada Singh appearing for the Samiti’ argued that the slum colony appears in a “list published on Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board’s website in 2018”. She stated that the said list has been downloaded from the official website of DUSIB. She further said that a code had been assigned to this “basti” and the list records the existence of 400 Jhuggis. She further argued that the colony is a “notified JJ (Jhuggi-Jhopri) Cluster” and the “Jhuggis cannot be demolished in the manner sought to be done”.

Singh had previously relied upon the Delhi Urban Slum and Rehabilitation and Location Policy, 2015 of DUSIB to argue that since DDA is the land-owning agency “it is obliged to rehabilitate the residents of slum colony prior to their eviction”. She had further argued that no eviction notice was served on the said colony residents and the entire demolition action was illegal.

During the course of the hearing today, the HC noted that in compliance of its February 14 direction, Singh had collated the identification documents of 467 individuals whose names were in DUSIB’s list, submitting it to the court and had also handed it over to the DDA and DUSIB’s counsel.