In A MAJOR relief for Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd (SICCL), a division bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday issued an interim order asking the state and the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) to stay demolition inside Sahara Shahar and restore possession of land to SICCL, observing that a civil court had stayed any demolition at the site. The bench, comprising Justice D P Singh and Justice Bal Krishna Narain, also ruled that demolition work of any illegal structure shall no longer be done after 5 pm and before 9 am. “The state Government should issue a circular to all the district magistrates to ensure (this),” the court stated, directing that a compliance report be submitted in 24 hours. In a late-night operation on Wednesday, the LDA entered Sahara Shahar in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar razing its boundary walls with bulldozers, to clear way for a 30-metre wide zonal road running through it.The division bench of the High Court took strong exception to this, asking LDA Vice-Chairman Ram Bahadur: “Why did the LDA demolish at night and that too without serving any prior notice?” The bench stated that written notices should be served before demolition of any structure.The state Government has said it will challenge the high court’s decision in the Supreme Court and file a special leave petition. The LDA admitted that structures had been demolished inside Sahara Shahar without any notice, and that SICCL was only informed verbally. In a press release later, it denied charges that no notice was served on SICCL or that the move was prompted by political vendetta. Defending the demolitions, it said the entire construction on the 270 acres of Sahara Shahar was illegal, and done without obtaining the approval of the building plan from a competent authority.Contradicting Sahara’s claims that it wasn’t served any notice, the LDA said: “On June 13, two representatives of Sahara in a meeting with the V-C of the LDA admitted that Sahara had encroached upon the 30-metre-wide road as provided in the master plan and they had also assured to withdraw from that land.” The LDA added that Sahara was repeatedly warned to remove the encroachments, but did not pay heed.Sahara counsel Raghvendra Singh said the LDA had demolished boundary walls, a watch tower, an auditorium, portion of a hospital and the approach to Jal Mahal. Sahara also claimed that the demolitions in Sahara Shahar were carried out for extension of the Ambedkar Park.
