On November 13, 2024, the Apex Court, invoking Article 142 of the Constitution, gave guidelines in compliance with which alone properties can be demolished. Despite the guidelines, bulldozer justice is alive and kicking and being meted out by state governments, more often than not, to teach a lesson to the leader of an arsonist, more often than not, belonging to the minority community, as it happened recently after the Nagpur riots. What emboldens the state governments, especially of the BJP-ruled states, are the two latitudes available in the SC guidelines:

1. If there is an unauthorised structure in any public place such as a road, street, footpath, place abutting a river or waterbody, etc., the authorities need not be detained by the niceties like serving a fortnight notice, etc. Instead, they can go hammer and tongs straightaway.

2. Bureaucrats have been warned of dire consequences for not adhering to the guidelines and not the political executive led by the chief minister.

Why has the highest court pulled its punches? Last year, it boldly declared electoral bonds as unconstitutional, and such a declaration hit the political class and the political executive where it hurts. Why, then, this time around didn’t the Court read the riot act to the political executive? No bureaucrat dares to use the bulldozer, except with the leave of the appropriate court, unless the political executive asks him to do so. And should he assert his independence and demur, he is made to face the consequences—punishment posting and even an adverse entry in his records. Therefore, the Supreme Court should have gone for the jugular of the chief minister of the state, given the fact that the buck stops with him. The first latitude is what comes in handy for the political executive to thumb its nose at the guidelines. Here is an anti-social element, a riot leader who has a house. The house itself may be authorized, but it may be, for example, extending into the space meant for the public by a few........

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