{
 "no": 43,
 "id": "case-43",
 "sk": 20241113,
 "year": 2024,
 "date": "Practice 2022 to 2024. SC ruling Nov 2024.",
 "cat": "Rights and dissent",
 "sev": "red",
 "title": "'Bulldozer justice'. Punishment by demolition",
 "stamp": "Ruled unconstitutional by SC",
 "human": {
  "v": "Homes and shops of the merely accused, often Muslim, often poor, flattened without a trial",
  "est": true
 },
 "cost": {
  "v": "SC later ordered <b>₹60 lakh</b> restitution for six wrongly-demolished Prayagraj families",
  "est": true
 },
 "what": "Several BJP-run states demolished the homes of people merely accused of crimes or of joining protests, staging the bulldozer as instant justice.",
 "dodge": "For years the practice ran as a spectacle of power, punishing whole families before any court had ruled. Only in November 2024 did the Supreme Court declare punitive demolitions unconstitutional, the executive cannot become a judge, and make officials personally liable. Accountability came from the bench, never from the governments that drove the bulldozer.",
 "ministers": [
  {
   "n": "BJP state governments (UP, MP, Rajasthan and others)",
   "r": "Ordered the demolitions"
  }
 ],
 "pos": "States said they demolished only illegal structures under municipal law, not as punishment.",
 "alt": "Due process for every demolition, notice, hearing and appeal, and personal liability for officials who bulldoze homes as punishment.",
 "sources": [
  {
   "label": "SC bans 'bulldozer justice' (BBC)",
   "url": "https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/articles/c0k8d3ynvzxo",
   "tier": 2
  },
  {
   "label": "Court denounces demolitions (NBC)",
   "url": "https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/india-top-court-denounces-bulldozer-justice-demolitions-rcna180094",
   "tier": 2,
   "archiveUrl": "http://web.archive.org/web/20251007132756/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/india-top-court-denounces-bulldozer-justice-demolitions-rcna180094"
  }
 ],
 "estimates": {
  "costInrCrore": 0.6
 },
 "caseUrl": "https://whoisresponsible.xyz/case/case-43/"
}