SC parked Yogi’s bulldozer in garage forever: Akhilesh

Kanpur: The Supreme Court has parked the bulldozer in the garage forever, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said here on Wednesday in a dig at the Yogi Adityanath government over the top court’s demolition verdict. The Uttar Pradesh government, which has been receiving flak from various quarters over “bulldozer action”, hailed the Supreme Court’s verdict on the matter while clarifying that it was not involved in the case.

The verdict was part of the case ‘Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind vs. North Delhi Municipal Corporation and others’, the state government said while asserting that the SC’s decision will help curb organised crime and instil a fear of legal consequences among criminals. Addressing a gathering here ahead of the November 20 bypolls in the state, Yadav claimed that the houses of the poor were being demolished in the name of bulldozer action.

He claimed that the manner in which bulldozers were used in Ayodhya was the reason behind the defeat in the Lok Sabha election.

The date for the by-election to the Milkipur assembly seat in Ayodhya was not announced by the Election Commission which has declared the date for bypolls to nine other Assembly seats in the state. At the election rally here in support of Samajwadi Party’s candidate Nasim Solanki, the party supremo said, “The Supreme Court has issued a big order. This will stop bulldozer action.”

Equating ‘bulldozer justice’ with a lawless state of affairs where might is right, the Supreme Court laid down pan-India guidelines and said no property should be demolished without a prior show cause notice and the affected must be given 15 days to respond. The executive cannot assume judicial powers to punish citizens by demolishing their properties without following due process, the apex court said while terming such excesses “high-handed and arbitrary” and ruling that they need to be dealt with the “heavy hand of the law”. Taking a jibe at the ruling BJP over the top court verdict, he said, “With the Supreme Court’s decision, the bulldozer has been parked in the garage forever. There can be no bigger comment than what the Supreme Court said.”