[Jahangirpuri demolition] Not targeting any community; no house or shop was demolished: NDMC to Supreme Court

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) informed the Supreme Court on Monday that the Jahangirpuri demolition drive was given an unwarranted communal colour by the petitioners [Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind v NDMC]..In an affidavit filed before the top court, NDMC highlighted that no house or shop was demolished at all either on April 20 or in any of the previous drives. "This is a blatant falsehood for which the deponent who has affirmed this on affidavit needs to be prosecuted so as to maintain the sanctity of averments being made on affidavit before this court," the affidavit reads..It was claimed that after the order of the Court to maintain status quo, those who were removed from public roads had come back and occupied the footpaths again..Further, the Corporation clarified that sacks of garbage, unauthorized projection on public land, unauthorized temporary structures well beyond the boundary of the houses, and shops were removed during the drive. It was stated that for this, no notice was necessary under the provisions of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act."Some temporary projections, on public road/ footpath are of such nature, for which, bulldozer is required to be used, while exercising powers under Section 322 of the Act."In this light, it was submitted that the petitioner had wilfully and deliberately suppressed information to sensationalize the issue..NDMC also stated that only projections on public road, unauthorised temporary structures and shops were removed.“The building line has remained intact during the present drive as well as earlier drives.”.Further, it was explained that unless a court's stay order is shown, such drives will continue, since affected parties tend to mislead authorities by wrongly contending that there is a stay."It is always a common experience that whenever the law enforcing agencies exercise their powers of removal of unauthorized projections and other encroachments under Section 322 of the Act, the affected parties mislead the authorities by wrongly contending that there is a stay by the court."The Court was also informed that the NDMC legal consultant was asked to verify the status quo order and once that was done, the drive stopped. NDMC also clarified that though the drive ended at 12 pm, the debris on the road was being removed for sometime.