Supreme Court agrees to hear contempt plea against demolitions in Assam’s Goalpara

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a contempt petition against Assam’s chief secretary and Goalpara district authorities for alleged violations of the court’s earlier guidelines on eviction and demolition drives in June, Live Law reported.

A bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran issued notices to the chief secretary and other officials, seeking their responses in the matter within two weeks, PTI reported.

Advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for the petitioners, told the court that the state authorities issued eviction notices to residents in Goalpara’s Hasilabeel village just two days before razing their homes.

He argued that even those accused of encroaching on government land are entitled to due legal procedure.

“These are 667 poor families who have been there on that land for 60–70 years,” he said, adding that many had been forced to settle in higher areas due to shifts in the course of the Brahmaputra river.

The petitioners contended that the evictions and demolitions “predominantly targeted a minority community, leaving out similarly placed persons from the majority community untouched”, PTI reported.

When Hegde requested interim relief in the form of a status quo, the court cautioned that any relief would not apply if the demolitions involved government land.

The petition relies on a Supreme Court judgement from November that held...

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