The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the ongoing demolition of unauthorised constructions at Ulhasnagar, a Mumbai suburb, witnesssing large scale protest by its resident against the drive likely to render around one lakh people roofless. "Why should we entertain such petitions?" A Bench headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal said questioning why the petitioners have come now against the April 27 judgement."
After being bombarded with several questions, advocates for the residents of Ulhasnagar preferred to withdraw the petitions and applications against the Bombay High Court verdict.
All the petitions were declared dismissed as withdrawn by the Bench with a liberty to approach the High Court with their grievances. Some residents of Ulhasnagar who were affected by the High Court judgments of April 27, November 23 and December 7 had approached the court praying that the blanket order for demolition has the effect of displacing around one lakh people in the area who have been residing in the area for about the past 20 years.
The High Court had directed the demolition of around 855 buildings as per the list provided by the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation. The residents had sought a stay on the High Court verdict on humanitarian grounds.
However, the Bench also comprising Justice C K Thakker and Justice P K Balasubramaniyan, was not impressed with the plea and said, "Why did you (petitioners) not approach the High Court? It (news about the demolition) was appearing in the newspapers."