The advantages of the slum policy 2021 approved via the state govt could not be claimed by those who have commercial buildings in slum areas, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court said.
“Such persons cannot be put at parity with the term ‘slum dwellers’. Therefore, the court would identify and consider the case on the basis of their particular facts,” said the bench, hearing the Akbarnagar demolition case.
State government, LDA, and the petitioners are rendered by the bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and OP Shukla to file the list of those dwellers, who furnish the GST and the ITRs accompanied with the information of the former 2 years.
Before that contending for the applicant nearly 800 of them proceeded to the bench jointly or separately, as the state govt itself has incurred a policy for the slum dwellers in 2021 therefore the same could not shift from that policy and make the dwellers of Akbarnagar dismiss without complying the policy provision, senior advocate JN Mathur contended.
Preceding Rehabilitation with Demolition is Against the Law
It is unplanned and illegal that the act of the state heads to ruin the whole area without preceding the rehabilitation scheme, he added. The dwellers had been provided with an option to choose the rehabilitation scheme and some of the dwellers proceeded with this, LDA counsel Ratnesh Chandra addressed this.
However the others are not taking an interest in opting for the advantage of the same scheme and the majority of these are the people who have built shops, commercial complexes, and other multistoried establishments in Akbarnagar, which is spread on the land of the government on the banks of Kukrail.
The copy of the counter affidavit has been served by the standing counsel made on the grounds of the state to Mathur. Feb 15 is fixed as the next hearing date for the case as fixed by the bench.
Before that, on December 22 another High Court bench led by Justice Pankaj Bhatia had stayed the demolition drive in Akbarnagar on the Faizabad Road till Jan 22 and sought over the ‘tearing hurry’ being established, that too in winter, by the administration in removing illegal constructions to pave the way for the revival and restoration of the Kukrail river.
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The bench, when admitting that prima facie the occupants can not establish their title to the residents and shops, said there was no confusion that they had been living there for more than 40 years. The bench had allotted time to the state authorities to execute its scheme of rehabilitation and then take over the possession
