Supreme Court suspends order for eviction of 800 Pakistani Hindus living in Delhi

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday suspended the order for eviction of nearly 800 Pakistani Hindus residing in a refugee camp at Majnu Ka Tilla, in the national capital.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh issued notice to the Centre and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and put on hold the order passed by the Delhi High Court in May this year.

Last year, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had issued eviction notices in March and July, but did not proceed with them.

A plea was filed by Dharamveer Bagri and others through advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain.

The Delhi High Court, in May this year, had declined to entertain a plea seeking protection for the camp, stating that environmental restrictions on the floodplains must be enforced.

The DDA, in July this year, again pasted notices, signalling that bulldozers could arrive at any time.

The petitioners moved the apex court against the high court order.

They claimed the order is in teeth of the provisions contained in Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

"The right to life under Article 21 includes the right to live with dignity, and there can be no dignity if there is not even shelter over a person, which has a direct bearing on the right to livelihood of a person,” their plea said.

The Hindu refugees claimed they have come to the country to escape "the brutal persecution at the hands of Islamists in Pakistan".

To even deny the basic amenity of shelter is not only a gross miscarriage of justice but also a gross violation of basic human rights, their plea said.

The plea pointed out that by a Gazette notification of December 12, 2019, the Citizen (Amendment) Act, 2019 providing for citizenship to any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community entered India on or before December 31, 2014, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan was enacted by Parliament.

The petitioners contended that the high court, while passing the order, has not taken into consideration the provisions of CAA.

The plea said there are about 250-260 families living at the Pakistani Hindu Refugee Camp at Majnu ka Tila (about 1217 persons), and some of the residents have been registered as citizens of India; however, other applications are under process.

“It is relevant to mention that all such persons are extremely poor and with little to no means of livelihood. Most of them are engaged in odd jobs like day labourers, household maids, etc. It is pertinent to mention that most of these Hindu refugees belong to the Scheduled Castes," their plea said.

The petitioners said that DDA has to provide for alternate housing or rehabilitation or resettlement for them.