Opposition parties on Tuesday said the Supreme Court’s directive staying demolitions across the country was a “tight slap” on “anti-constitutional thinking”.

Earlier in the day, the court passed an order staying demolitions without its permission till October 1. The court, however, clarified that this directive did not apply to unauthorised constructions on public roads, footpaths, railway lines or public places.

It issued the orders on a batch of petitions challenging “bulldozer action” by state governments whereby properties belonging to persons accused of crimes were punitively demolished.

There are no provisions in Indian law that allow for demolishing property as a punitive action.

In response to the court’s directive, the Congress said that the country should be run by the Constitution and not by bulldozers.

“The Supreme Court has made this clear once again,” the party said in a post on X. “Under the BJP government, the bulldozer has become a weapon to fuel the ‘politics of hate’. It has become a means of destroying law and order.”

The party said that the order was a “tight slap on this anti-constitutional thinking”.

Party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that the court’s decision of “holding a mirror to the unjust and inhuman ‘bulldozer policy’ of the BJP governments” was welcome.

“Through such barbaric actions, the policy and intentions of trampling humanity and justice by ‘running a bulldozer over the law of the country’ have been exposed before the entire country,” she said in a post on X.

She added: “They believe that under the guise of ‘instant justice’, the rule of mob and fear can be established by crushing the Constitution with the bulldozer of oppression and injustice.”

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday said that the court order “sidelined not only the bulldozer, but also the destructive politics of those who misused the bulldozer”.

In a post on X, he said: “Today the wheels of the bulldozer have come off and the steering has come off the handle. This is an identity crisis for those who have made the bulldozer their symbol.”

Yadav added: “Now neither the bulldozer will be able to run nor the person who will operate it.”

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said that it welcomed the step taken by the court to “curb the extra-judicial and vindictive method of bulldozer actions” that violated the rule of law provided in the Constitution.

The case in the Supreme Court goes back to April 2022 when Islamic organisation Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind approached the Supreme Court against a demolition drive in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area.

The demolitions were stayed, but the petitioners sought a declaration that authorities cannot use bulldozer action as a form of punishment.

Related petitions have since been filed by Rashid Khan from Rajasthan and Mohammad Hussain from Madhya Pradesh.

Authorities in four Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states and one Aam Aadmi Party-governed state punitively bulldozed 128 structures, mostly belonging to Muslims, between April and June 2022, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report in February.

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