Delhi High Court ordered status quo on DDA’s demolition drive against slum clusterin Mehrauli

The Delhi High Court in the case Gosiya Colony Sewa Samiti v. DDA observed and has ordered a status quo on Delhi Development Authority’s action for demolishing a slum cluster in the Mehrauli area.
The bench headed by Justice Manmeet Pritam Arora in the case observed and has directed DDA for maintaining status quo with respect to Ghosiya Slum Colony till February 14. The slum cluster houses 400 jhuggis.
The bench observed that that Ghosiya Slum Colony is a Jhuggi cluster duly which is being enlisted in the list published by DUSIB on its official website, wherein recording 400 Jhuggis and also the 2015 policy, thus, the facts of the Respondents do not have instructions in the matter and it has been directed to the Respondent to maintain status quo with respect to the 400 Juggis which are verified by Respondent No. 2, until the next date of hearing in the said matter.
In the present case, the court was hearing the petition moved by Gosiya Colony Sewa Samiti. Advocates Anupradha Singh, the counsels, KR Shiyas and Fidel Sebastian appeared for the petitioner.
The counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that the slum colony duly appears in a list published by DUSIB in 2018, wherein it records existence of 400 jhuggis in the cluster. Before the Court, it was also contended that the slum cluster is a notified JJ cluster and thus it cannot demolish the jhuggis.
The court placed Reliance on Delhi Urban Slum and Rehabilitation and Location Policy, 2015, for submitting that since DDA is the land-owning agency, it is being obliged to rehabilitate the residents of slum colony which being prior to their eviction.
Further, it has been submitted by the counsel that no eviction notice has been served on the residents and therefore the entire demolition action of DDA was entirely illegal.
The court directed the authorities to file their written submissions on or before February 13, while listing the matter for hearing on February 14.