AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday declined to grant stay on a mega demolition drive undertaken in Ahmedabad's Chandola Lake area from where over 6500 residents, mostly Muslims, were detained on suspicion they were undocumented Bangladeshi nationals.
A group of 18 residents of Chandola Lake had challenged the state government's drive to demolish their homes without any notice to the occupants as being "unreasonable, illegal and arbitrary."
Civic authorities and police in Ahmedabad launched the demolition drive on Tuesday.
Justice Mauna Bhatt refused to stay the demolition drive after observing the dwellings of the petitioners were on the periphery of the water body and as per section 37 of the Land Revenue Code, such structures can be razed by the government, petitioners' lawyer Anand Yagnik said.
The court observed that since the petitioners are "illegal encroachers," relief from demolition cannot be granted to them.
At the same time, the court noted that if any petitioners are covered under the government's rehabilitation and resettlement policies of 2010 and 2013, they can make a representation to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation for consideration, he said.
The residents of Chandola Lake moved the HC for stay on the "illegal demolition" on the grounds they were not issued any notice for eviction and demolition, and have lived in the area for the last six decades, having migrated to Ahmedabad from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal in the 1970s.
The petitioners argued they had all necessary documents such as ration cards, election ID, and Aadhaar cards, and detention of their family members on suspicion of being Bangladeshi citizens was illegal.
They claimed in the petition that they were not served any notice but only informed verbally regarding the initiation of the demolition drive.
To carry out such an action without providing them alternative accommodation was against the mandate of law, they contended.
To carry out the drive, a "false and fraudulent narrative" was created regarding the nationality of the petitioners as being Bangladeshis and some of their family members were detained, the petitioners maintained.
Government Pleader GH Virk argued that matters concerning public safety and national security cannot be subordinated to procedural technicalities.
The drive was being taken for maintaining the safety and security of the people of the state at large and also to protect national security, and hence it cannot be hounded by principles of natural justice, he said in his submission.
The government counsel further submitted that the demolition was being carried out peacefully, with most structures already abandoned.
As per a state government affidavit filed in the court, over the years, the area around Chandola Lake has allegedly become a hub for illegal activities -- ranging from flesh trade and narcotics trafficking to document forgery and even harbouring extremist elements.
The state cited the recent arrest of four Bangladeshi nationals linked to an Al-Qaeda module with suspected connections to the lake area as a serious national security red flag.
"No legal development permissions were ever granted for any construction inside Chandola Lake, a notified water body," the affidavit stated.