Supreme Court Zindabad

Supreme Court has declared the act that banned any demolitions in Delhi for a year as "invalid and void". The Hon'ble High Court of Delhi on December 19th, 2005 had directed MCD to start demolition drive under which actions were taken against 2642 properties. Well, atleast in theory.

Stopping short of staying the Parliament-enacted law to stop court-mandated demolitions and sealings of illegal buildings in the Capital, the Supreme Court on Monday said the Delhi Laws (Special Provision) Act, 2006, appeared to be 'wholly invalid and void'.

Sealing drive started on March 29 and till May 20, 2006 13,960 properties were sealed. However, see the guts and political strategy (more later) of the Central Government of India. The Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act 2006 was notified by the Urban Development Ministry on May 20 after the President assented to it. After that, all the "good work" of the MCD under court orders had to be suspended, for atleast 1 year.

This demolition was seen, by many including me, as THE ONLY way to get prepared for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The December 19 HC order meant that unauthorized constructions would be demolished, and shops be sealed. This would clear off Delhi, and would have made Delhi a "better place" to live, after all infrastructure would get better etc. And then, Mukesh Ambani has plans to develop new cities in outskirts of Delhi (and Bombay) which, as he claims, would be one of the top cities of India, if not the world. But alas, there were protests about these demolitions by the affected people, and the Congress government saw that it was losing its voters... so they just came with this (stupid) law which is more like a contempt of court.

Here's my analogy to this Act: Imagine there is a lot of crime - murders, narcotics etc. - the hot ones today in India - and it turns out that a very influential person is involved and is convicted. Now, the government makes a law (as if they could) to stop his trial in the court of justice... now wouldn't that be a contempt of court and also unfair to the victims? It is exactly what the government did with demolitions.

Well, I did expect some sort of action by the Supreme Court, and this is exactly what I wanted. I was shocked and disappointed by the "new law" of the government back in May, and also was disappointed to see that there was no "reflex reaction" to this by the court. However, it is good to learn about the decision now. Here's some more for you to digest:

"Pure and simple, this is a legislation to override the court orders," the Bench said and observed that on hindsight it appears as if the government had carefully chalked out a strategy — first to file an affidavit seeking suspension of the sealing drive for six months and then withdrawing the same to enact the new law.

Solicitor-general G E Vahanvati, appearing for the Centre, was at pains to explain to the court that there was no such strategy at play and that the government wanted to address the entire issue in a comprehensive manner for ustainable development of the Capital.

Now, Solicitor general on behalf of the Central government said that the government wanted to address the entire issue in an orderly manner. They just thought that maybe what they couldn't do in the last 60 years, they could get it done in 1 year without needing the courts to guide the MCD. However, for those who don't know about this, there is a political reason for bringing that law, and not a development-concern. Elections time for the MCD, and people will vote to elect the new operators of the MCD. Since Congress was the main contender, they just saw the HC attempts to get the city straightened up as a threat to their vote-bank. All they care about is their votes, and not the city or the government. Many people (specially die hard Congress supporters) might disagree with me, but if you know anything about India and its politics, and have an unbiased opinion, then you will definitely agree.

Is it all taken care of and will MCD be back on demolition drive and clear the city of unauthorized constructions? Will the government not be able to do anything? Well, unfortunately, theoretically government can still do a lot about it. The government can include the Act in Ninth Schedule - Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951 - which deprives the court to challenge the validity of laws. All they need is a constitutional amendment. Although it seems unlikely that this will happen, but hey, it's India...

Anyways, I am happy with the Supreme Court with that. Let's see what happens in the future, but for now:
Supreme Court Zindabad!