SC to hear today plea relating to demolition of ‘illegal’ buildings

New Delhi, Aug 27: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea relating to the demolition drive to clear alleged illegal constructions near the Krishna Janmabhoomi in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura.
As per the cause list of Monday uploaded on the apex court website, the plea would come up for hearing before a bench comprising justices Aniruddha Bose, Sanjay Kumar and SVN Bhatti. The matter pertains to demolition of settlements near the Krishna Janmabhoomi.
While hearing the matter on August 16, the apex court had halted for 10 days the demolition drive being carried out by the railway authorities to clear the alleged illegal constructions.
It had issued notices to the Centre and others seeking their responses on a plea filed by petitioner Yakub Shah.
“Let there be an order of status quo as regards the subject premises for a period of 10 days from today. List after one week,” the bench had said in its August 16 order. Later on August 25, the matter again came up for hearing before the top court which had refused further extension of the interim order. “List on August 28. In the meantime, rejoinder, if any, be filed by the petitioner. No further extension of the interim order,” the bench had said. On August 16, the petitioner’s counsel had told the apex court that 100 houses have been bulldozed.
“There are 70-80 houses left. Whole thing will become infructuous. They conducted the exercise on a day when the courts were closed,” he had argued. (PTI)