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Bulldozers are posing a challenge to constitutional rights. But our higher courts are not responding. It’s as if they are in a daze. Or, perhaps we should say, in a ‘bull-daze’ – a state of systemic passivity when confronted with governments’ unconstitutional use of force. With more house demolitions, in UP and MP, and Gujarat, Assam, Tripura and Delhi civic authorities already in the bulldozer club, violations of basic rights are widespread. But the wheels of justice are moving far slower than the tracks of bulldozers. MP high court issued notices in April following demolitions after Khargone riots – so far, nothing has happened. The Supreme Court’s next hearing after staying the April 20 demolitions in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri is listed for August. Courts must show much more urgency. HCs and SC can even take suo motu notice because courts’ core duty of determining guilt and punishment, premised on due process, is at stake.

A chance to correct this comes via the petition filed in Allahabad HC on Monday against the Prayagraj house demolition. The petition noted that the house was owned by the wife of the person accused of organising ‘violent demonstrations’. This brings into stark focus one of the worst aspects of bulldozer action. Not only is guilt being determined outside courts, punishment is being meted out to the family of the accused. The concept of collective punishment was popular in Middle Ages, and even codified in law. To state the obvious, it has no place in constitutional democracies. Yet, over the last couple of years, and particularly over the last few weeks, bulldozers ordered by state officials are posing a dangerous question to the rule of law.

It falls to higher courts to create a judicial barrier to bulldozer ‘justice’. It’s unlikely that any CM or municipal authority would defy judges. When courts make strong interventions, even recalcitrant systems correct themselves. A fine recent example is SC’s directions on the Lakhimpur Kheri probe. The justice system, for all its limitations, still works as a protector of citizens’ rights. It cannot remain ‘bull-dazed’.

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This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.

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