'Covid-19 can't be excuse for inaction': HC slams Karnataka govt for delay in slum rehab plan

The high court on Tuesday warned of contempt proceedings if the state government fails to quickly come up with a comprehensive scheme to rehabilitate 351 poor people whose shanties were pulled down in Bellandur area in January.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka reacted sharply to the government’s submission that the scheme could not be prepared due to Covid-19. The pandemic cannot be an excuse for all inaction, the court noted. The shanties were pulled down by the authorities on the pretext that the residents were illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

PUCL Karnataka moved the court, stating the residents were from North Karnataka, West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Bihar.

The government filed an affidavit stating that a large number of shanties were removed at two places in survey number 35/2. The court had held it was not a case where any wing of the state had made an enquiry and had come to the conclusion that occupants of the shelters were illegal immigrants.

In February, the court ordered the government to prepare a comprehensive rehabilitation scheme within a month.

“Even as of today, the state has not come up with any scheme for rehabilitation. A large number of persons have been deprived of their shelters in gross violation of their right to shelter which is a part of the right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” the bench said.

The bench observed that the excuse of Covid-19 was not available to the government when the court passed the first order about the rehabilitation scheme in February.

The court has now given the government time until September 24 to submit the scheme and warned of initiating contempt proceedings if the order is not obeyed.