Punishment Without Process

IT HAS BEEN many years since bulldozer justice became a phenom­enon and it is in keeping with the pace of justice that it is only now that the judiciary has turned its lens onto it. This week the Supreme Court, hear­ing a petition, said that it would make guidelines over it. The court professed the need to be careful over it because to prevent demolition of unauthorised constructions would be condoning illegality. On the other hand, the very idea of demolition as an instrument of punishment bypassing the judicial process is fraught with concern.

This mechanism was first instituted in Uttar Pradesh and advertised as a deterrence to others that it could happen to them. Soon, more states followed suit. Early this year, for example, in the outer suburbs of Mumbai, after a communal clash, the bulldozers were sent. The reason the court is not taking kindly to it is because the action is entirely discre­tionary. In a system governed by rule of law, even punishment has to have checks and balances. Otherwise, why even have anything called appeals when a lower court passes a sentence over someone. The idea is that even judges are fallible and can get it wrong. Therefore, there are higher courts and even in them, a single judge could still be wrong and so benches of more than one decide on cases.

When it comes to bulldozers, punishment is immediate and by diktat. No advance notices are sent so that it can be stayed. Once a structure is demolished, even if unfairly, then the aggrieved person has to follow the regular system that moves at a snail’s pace to get reparation. One of the cases before the Supreme Court is of a man whose house was demolished because his tenant’s son killed a classmate leading to communal riots. The state wanted to send a message but ended up punishing someone who, at least by media reports, had no part to play in the events that led to the punishment. This cannot be called an exception as it happened precisely because no one was interested in process, just punishment.

There is no accountability for the bulldozer. Right now, it is being mainly used against major criminals and rioters, but the more it gets legitimised, everyone becomes fair game. The hand behind the bulldozer gets to pick and choose who to act against. Those who applaud such actions forget that governments and dispensations change, only the precedents remain. The very tool that you thought was a stroke of genius in maintaining law and order will be targeted against the opponents of those who come to power later. The irony is that bulldoz­ers have done nothing to stem the issue of unauthorised construction in any Indian city because of corruption. It is the state’s employees who deliberately turn a blind eye to it. Maybe, the next bulldozer action should be against those who allowed such unauthorised constructions to come up and bloom for decades.

About The Author

Madhavankutty Pillai

Madhavankutty Pillai has no specialisations whatsoever. He is among the last of the generalists. And also Open chief of bureau, Mumbai  

•