The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has awarded a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a woman, stating that her house was wrongly demolished by municipal authorities in Ujjain.
The court said it had become "fashionable" now for local administration and local bodies to demolish any house without following due procedure.
"As observed repeatedly by this court, it has become fashionable now for local administration and local bodies to demolish any house by drawing up proceedings without complying with the Principal of Natural Justice and publish it in the newspaper,” the court said.
The bench of Justice Vivek Rusia also stated that demolition should be the "last recourse" to be followed and that too, after giving a proper opportunity to the owner of the house to get it regularised.
However, the bench noted that no one had the right to construct a house without proper permission or without adhering to the regulations.
The High Court further directed authorities to initiate disciplinary action against the officers who prepared the forged documents regarding the property in question.
Recently, several states, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Delhi have demolished multiple houses on different occasions, stating that they were built illegally. Most of them belonged to people allegedly involved in crimes.
Numerous cases challenging the demolitions are pending before various court across the country.
