Forty-eight residents of Assam on Wednesday filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court seeking to revoke the proposed demolitions of their homes in Kachutali village, in Kamrup Metropolitan district.

The district administration’s plan to demolish their homes violated the Supreme Court’s September 17 directive staying demolitions across the country till October 1, the petition said.

The court had issued the directives on a batch of petitions challenging “bulldozer action” by various state governments, whereby properties belonging to persons accused of crimes have been punitively demolished.

Over the past few weeks, an eviction drive in the Sonapur area of Kamrup Metropolitan has led to the demolitions of nearly 500 homes, with several others earmarked for razing.

The residents told the Supreme Court that their homes were tagged with red stickers on September 13, indicating that they would soon be evicted. They claimed they were not given any prior intimation about the eviction notices.

The eviction notices issued by the district administration alleged that the residents were in “illegal” possession of the land and were “unauthorised” to claim the plot as it was meant for use by members of the Scheduled Tribes community, as per the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation.

“The right to housing/shelter is a fundamental right as has been held by this Hon’ble Court on numerous occasions and forms an integral part of the right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution,” said the contempt petition submitted by the 48 residents on Wednesday.

Article 21 guarantees the right to life and personal liberty.

“This right of the citizens evidently cannot be taken away or infringed upon without following the due process of law,” the petition added. “Hence, the demolition of properties by the authorities in [Assam] as a punitive measure for alleged crimes is also in violation of this fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution.”

The petition said that the residents’ families have lived in the area since the 1920s, under power of attorney agreements executed between the original landholders and their forefathers. This was before the land was notified as a “tribal belt” in 1950.

It claimed that their occupation of the land was recognised by these agreements and that they had been allowed to live there by the original landholders, some of whom belonged to the Scheduled Tribes community.

The residents were also provided essential services, including electricity, ration cards, Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards. The petition said this was evidence that they were legal occupants of the land.

“The petitioners have been residing in the said scheduled lands for around last seven, eight decades since generations, but they have never engaged in any disputes or clash with the tribal or protected people living in the adjoining areas,” the petition said. “They have been living peacefully and through proper relationship with people belonging to all the communities, whether it be social or trade relationship.”

It added: “As such, eviction of the petitioners would not only deprive the petitioners of their homes and livelihood, but also disrupt the societal fabric of the area.”

The case will be heard next on September 30.

The eviction drive

On Tuesday, authorities in Kamrup Metropolitan district bulldozed 250 homes in an eviction drive that resumed less than two weeks after two men were shot dead by the police amid violent protests.

Officials from the district administration had on September 9 bulldozed nearly 240 homes, the majority of them belonging to Bengali-origin Muslims from Morigaon district. The residents had built their homes in the low-lying area over several decades.

Three days later, on September 12, the officials returned and gave the residents an ultimatum to vacate the land in two hours. This led to a violent clash between the residents and officials, during which two men were shot dead by the police.

The Gauhati High Court on September 20 suspended the eviction of several families in Kachutali after residents said they possessed titles to their land. The residents said they were not illegal settlers as claimed by the state government.

The homes razed on Tuesday did not belong to the families who got the stay order from the High Court, Sonapur Circle Officer Nitul Khataniar said. “In the first phase, we had conducted evictions on government land,” he said. “This is the second phase where we are conducting it on personal patta land.”

Khataniar added that the demolished structures had been removed so that the affected families did not return to settle in the area again.

Also read: Three days after a peaceful eviction drive in Assam, why did two men die in police firing?