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The Home That Parveen Fatima Constructed: How the Spark was Lit for Anti-Muslim State Retribution in Modi’s India

Harsh Mander

It was in his daughter’s dwelling—a two-bedroom flat in New Delhi’s teeming Jamia Nagar—that I met Mohammad Jawed in April 2024. Authorities bulldozers had torn down his spouse’s double-storeyed home in Prayagraj (previously Allahabad), destroying a lot of his life’s financial savings.

A neat man with a trimmed, gray beard and a peaceful method, Jawed, now 59, had spent 21 months in jail, combating eight prison fees and preventive detention. The judges didn’t discover any convincing proof that he had dedicated the crimes he was accused of and launched him on 16 March 2024.

I met Jawed simply weeks after his launch. He was anguished however not damaged. His spirited daughters—one 26 and a researcher and activist, the opposite 22 and a scholar (again then)—had been nonetheless indignant.

The spark that ignited the fireplace that consumed Jawed’s dwelling and 21 months of his life was lit by demeaning remarks towards the Prophet Mohammad by BJP nationwide spokesperson Nupur Sharma in a tv debate on Occasions Now on 27 Could 2022. The recordings of her feedback had been circulated extensively on social media and stirred outrage and protests by Muslims in India and overseas.

The primary of those was protests in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh on 3 June 2022 after the Friday prayers. The police dispersed the crowds and arrested many individuals. However the fires unfold to many elements of the nation, together with Ranchi, Howrah, Bhiwandi and Udaipur, the place stones had been thrown, and other people had been killed in police firings and hate assaults.

In Prayagraj, Jawed, angered by the one-sided police motion in Kanpur, posted on Fb (now deleted after official strain): “Why did the Kanpur violence happen? Why does the state authorities not examine the true illness? Till when will individuals like Nupur Sharma and Yati Narsinghanand make obscene remarks towards the Prophet Muhammad and the federal government and police can be quiet…”

After Friday prayers in Prayagraj the next week, on 10 June 2022, protestors gathered in giant numbers. Some younger males threw stones, however the police shortly dispersed the gang with minimal use of power.

Jawed was not among the many protestors. He even posted on Fb, urging individuals to disperse peacefully. He appealed to Muslims to not collect after Friday prayers and as a substitute to go dwelling, and pray that concord, peace and love would prevail.

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In a while 10 June, the police detained Jawed with round 125 different males. They had been all compelled to sit down on the ground on the police traces the entire evening. The following morning, Jawed stated, a senior police officer hit him, requested him to lick his chappal and accused him of a “jihadi mindset”.

Most of the different males had been additionally crushed and tortured, they alleged. Nobody gave them meals and even water to drink.

That evening, they had been pushed to the Naini Jail. Some who had been badly injured and bleeding due to the police violence, and Jawed, whose blood strain had soared, had been admitted to the jail hospital.

In the meantime, at dwelling, his household—spouse, two daughters and pregnant daughter-in-law—had been combating a mounting dread.

Social media posts referred to as for the demolition of their dwelling. The posts of presidency officers had been overtly intimidating. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath tweeted that his administration would deal firmly with the protests, with arrests beneath the Nationwide Safety Act of 1980 and demolitions.

The NSA—most lately used towards the Ladakhi activist Sonam Wangchuk in comparable circumstances after a riot that police allege he instigated—permits police to detain these accused for as much as a 12 months with out trial.

Information reveal the NSA’s misuse, as Article 14 reported in 2023, utilizing 101 circumstances over 9 years to point out how the NSA and different legal guidelines prefer it are an impediment to established rules of justice and equity.

Jawed’s feisty elder daughter posted on-line a video about her fears that the state may bulldoze their dwelling.

Round midnight on June 10, a police unit with ladies law enforcement officials visited their dwelling. They stated that Jawed’s household may go to him within the police lockup and provides him some garments and his medicines.

Jawed’s spouse Parveen Fatima, and youthful daughter Sumaiya Fatima packed his issues and left with the ladies officers. Nevertheless, as a substitute of assembly Jawed within the police lockup, they, too, discovered themselves in a police station. They spent a fearful evening sitting on its wood benches.

The following day handed, but the police didn’t launch them. One other evening got here alongside. This time they got some durries to lie on the bottom and sleep on the police station.

On the morning of the third day, the police launched his spouse, Parveen Fatima, and daughter, however instructed them to not go dwelling. As an alternative, they dropped them on the dwelling of some family. That morning, bulldozers reached their dwelling. Afreen and her pregnant sister-in-law had fled for concern of arrest.

There was nobody dwelling.

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Almost three years after Jawed’s household fled their dwelling, 1,640 km to the southwest within the city of Malvan in Maharashtra, the teenage son of a Muslim scrap metallic dealer watched tv together with his mother and father of their small condo. A cliffhanger cricket match between India and Pakistan was underway on 23 February 2025.

An area political activist, Sachin Sandip Waradkar, claimed to have heard the boy elevating slogans supporting Pakistan as he handed their dwelling. Waradkar complained to the native police.

A battery of crimes was mounted towards the boy and his mother and father, together with fees of disturbing communal peace and performing towards nationwide integration.

Three days later, the boy was detained and despatched to an statement dwelling for juveniles in battle with the legislation, and his mother and father had been arrested.

Bulldozers then arrived to raze the scrap seller’s store, with out discover and with no indication of due course of. It was notable that they did as a result of lower than three months earlier, on 9 November 2024, a Supreme Court docket bench of Justices B R Gavai and Okay V Viswanathan handed what was extensively thought to be a landmark judgement.

By then, it was clear that demolitions in India had enhance,d and Muslims had been a selected goal.

In a 2024 report, the Housing and Land Rights Community, a collective of attorneys, reported the very best ever variety of demolitions since they started conserving a report in 2017. The identical 12 months, Amnesty Worldwide, the worldwide advocacy group, launched a report that studied 128 demolitions in 4 BJP states and located “an absolute failure of the state authorities to make sure that the survivors of those demolitions had been afforded due course of protections”.

The Amnesty report discovered that total households had been being punished, “together with by arbitrarily detaining members of the family, and unlawfully demolishing their houses and companies… a type of collective and arbitrary punishment that egregiously violates… the rights to a good trial, enough housing, dignity and non-discrimination”.

The Supreme Court docket judgement stated that demolishing an individual’s property with out due course of, solely based mostly on alleged prison exercise, was unconstitutional, violating the elemental proper to shelter, derived from the elemental proper to life beneath Article 21 of the Structure.

Justices Gavai and Vishwanathan forbade such demolitions as a result of these amounted to unjust “collective punishment”, unfairly impacting not solely the accused but in addition their harmless members of the family.

But, when the house in Malvan was demolished, a legislator from the ruling Shinde Shiv Sena, Nilesh Rane, now a minister within the Maharashtra authorities, posted visuals of the demolition on social media, applauding the swift response of each the police and the municipal administration.

In 2025, Article 14 reported how Rane accrued political capital by calling Muslims Pakistani pimps, inexperienced pigs and inexperienced snakes; threatening to strip, beat them and urging Hindus to boycott them and demolish mosques. The police filed—on courtroom instructions—20 first data reviews towards him, 19 over the past two years.

On 15 December 2024, Rane, a former Congressman, who as soon as criticised Narendra Modi and mocked the RSS, was sworn in as cupboard minister, conforming to a BJP sample of not simply political tolerance however reward for hate speech.

In February 2025, India Hate Lab, documented (in case you can not entry this hyperlink, it might be as a result of the Lab is ceaselessly blocked by the union authorities) 1,165 situations of hate speech towards minorities the earlier 12 months, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and residential minister Amit Shah among the many most frequent purveyors—with Muslims essentially the most frequent goal, with 98.5% of recorded situations of hate speech directed towards them.

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The Supreme Court docket judgment didn’t go far sufficient, I argue, as a result of it did not acknowledge that a number of current acts of demolition had been lawless and unconstitutional, not simply due to lapses of due course of—one thing that has recurred via many many years—however as a result of these overwhelmingly focused just one group of residents, Indian Muslims.

As we will see on this collection, the manager, each within the nationwide authorities and in BJP-ruled states, continues to defy the specific instructions of the Supreme Court docket by persisting with these lawless demolitions concentrating on primarily Muslims in public demonstrations of masculinist performances of retributive justice.

I’ll argue that the paramount failing of the Supreme Court docket is that, no less than till the time of my writing, it has not felt moved to remonstrate with the senior political management that orders and celebrates these acts of state lawlessness, not to mention punish them.

Certainly, on 3 June 2025, Justice Gavai, talking on the inaugural Sir Maurice Rault Memorial Lecture on the College of Mauritius, referred to his personal 2024 ruling on unlawful demolitions. “Legality alone doesn’t confer equity or justice,” he stated. “It is very important do not forget that simply because one thing is legalised, it doesn’t imply it’s simply.”

“Historical past gives quite a few examples of this painful fact. The Rule of Legislation is just not a mere algorithm,” stated Justice Gavai. “It’s an moral and ethical framework designed to uphold equality, defend human dignity, and information governance in a various and complicated society. The judgment despatched a transparent message that the Indian authorized system is ruled by the Rule of Legislation, not by the rule of the bulldozer.”

Demolitions are particularly celebrative when they’re delivered to the help of anti-Muslim hyper-nationalism. After the killing of 26 civilians by terrorists in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir (J&Okay) on 22 April 2025, the state authorities used “managed explosions” to raze the houses of no less than eight males it suspected of being linked to the fear assault.

Such retribution was not confined solely to Kashmir. Even in Gurugram, a part of the Nationwide Capital Area, as an example, the houses of 300 Bengali-speaking Muslim casual migrant employees had been razed, dubiously linking them to the fear assault solely due to their spiritual identification.

Such state-detonated explosions had been repeated half a 12 months later, after a automotive exploded on November 10 close to the historic Purple Fort within the previous metropolis of the nationwide capital, killing no less than 12 individuals.

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The union authorities introduced that its investigations had proven that one Dr Umar Nabi was behind the wheel of the automotive that exploded, after DNA samples collected from the blast website matched these of Dr Umar’s mom.

In swift retribution, authorities detonated the household dwelling of the prime suspect, Dr Nabi, in Pulwama in J&Okay. The home collapsed into rubble, and the blast broken many neighbouring homes. The authorities presumably wore it as a badge of honour that they didn’t even situation a discover to the household earlier than they devastated the home.

Criticising the demolition, Srinagar member of Parliament (MP) Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi on 14 November 2025 posted on X (beforehand Twitter) that “demolishing a house gained’t ship ‘punishment’”. It will solely inflict “collective struggling”.

“Making a complete household homeless in the course of the harsh winter of Kashmir with out proof/courtroom order or any legislation linking them to the incident is an act of cruelty,” Mehdi stated in his put up. “It doesn’t convey justice to the harmless lives that we misplaced within the terror assault, and it doesn’t obtain the ends of justice.”

“Maintain the precise perpetrators accountable via lawful investigation,” stated Mehdi. “Mass detentions, coercive interrogations, and unlawful demolitions won’t convey peace; they are going to drag Kashmir again by many years.”

J&Okay chief minister Omar Abdullah additionally criticised the demolition of the house of the Purple Fort blast accused. “If terrorism might be stopped by such actions, then it could have stopped,” he informed reporters on 14 November 2025. “After the Pahalgam assault, what number of homes had been blasted? Did it (terrorism) cease? I concern as a substitute such actions gas anger.”

These demolitions in J&Okay weren’t exceptions.

The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, headed by the well-regarded human rights activist Khurram Parvez—incarcerated for 4 years now—and the Authorized Discussion board for Kashmir have documented no less than 1,172 civilian houses demolished by the military or paramilitary forces on the pretext of army operations or retribution towards Kashmiri males charged with militant violence between 2020 and 2024.

There’s nothing in nationwide or worldwide legislation that lawfully sanctions or prescribes such demolitions.

The 2024 Amnesty Worldwide report on demolitions reviewed state municipal and land regulation legal guidelines, and located they fell beneath worldwide human rights requirements about prior “real” session, enough discover, compensation, and various settlement.

“The state authorities did not observe even the exiguous procedures laid down within the home legal guidelines whereas finishing up these demolitions,” stated the report.

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In Jawed’s hospital ward, the place he was admitted beneath armed guard, there was a big tv. On 12 June 2022, a Sunday, he listened to information reviews that described him because the “mastermind” of the Friday protests.

On Sunday morning, he watched—surprised and heartbroken, he stated—as pictures poured in of bulldozers razing his dwelling. Of their family’ dwelling, his spouse and daughters, too, watched on tv their dwelling being introduced down by bulldozers.

The 2-storeyed home and the land on which it stood belonged to Jawed’s spouse Parveen. If the home was being demolished to punish Jawed for his alleged function within the Friday protests, it mattered little to the administration that he didn’t personal the home.

The municipal authorities claimed that the home was illegally constructed and that that they had despatched a discover on 25 Could. This, the household denied. The officers pasted a discover solely the evening earlier than on the door of the home, after all of the residents of the home had been detained by the police or had left.

The municipality had collected taxes for years from the home, however by no means stated the constructing was unlawful. And, if certainly the home was illegally constructed, he argued, why had been tens of homes on the identical lane and different lanes not introduced down after they had been of equivalent legality as Parveen Fatima’s dwelling?

Earlier than the bulldozers moved in to drag down the home, the officers requested the neighbours to retrieve something of worth in only a few minutes. Most neighbours had been too terrorised to maneuver. A few neighbours bumped into the home and pulled out a couple of issues of worth that they noticed.

After that, the home was razed as a big crowd, and reporters with tv cameras bore witness.

Reporting reside, some tv reporters revelled within the sight of the home crumbling earlier than them. “This isn’t the house of a person”, one stated. “It’s the dwelling of a rioter, and he has been given what he deserves”.

One other stated, “Have a look at what number of books he has. He ought to have learn these as a substitute of turning right into a terrorist!”

The home razed, the bulldozers left, the journalists left, after which individuals converged to scour the ruins for something they might loot.

Jawed recalled to me that as he watched his dwelling being destroyed from his hospital mattress, “Andar se meri aatma ro rahi thi (my soul was weeping inside me).”

“I started to weep, and shortly tears welled up additionally within the eyes of the opposite males with me. They urged me to not watch, however how may I look away?” stated Jawed. “All our life financial savings had been diminished to rubble. I assumed—my household is being made to endure due to my social service?”

“How usually have my spouse and youthful daughter pleaded with me to present all of that up, and to reside a quiet life at dwelling. If I had listened to them, they might not have change into homeless.”

Jawed’s spouse and daughters certainly had nowhere to go. Some family sheltered them for a couple of nights. However everybody was terrified that in the event that they harboured them too lengthy, bulldozers may attain their houses as properly.

The daughters teared up as they defined, “No waste is larger than the demolition of your own home. Even jail is just not so unhealthy”. Individuals had been scared even to lease them a house in Prayagraj. Finally, a distant relative rented them a small home within the periphery of town.

They learnt that 9 days later, Jawed and another prisoners had been moved to a different jail, some 320 km away in Deoria. This made it tougher for his household to go to him in jail.

“Jail is pricey”, his daughter defined to me. “Every time we visited him, this value cash. We might hand him cash for his month-to-month bills. After which there was lease to pay. However our dwelling and all our belongings had been destroyed. Our father was in jail, there was nobody to earn cash each month, and the group was too frightened to be seen serving to us. These had been very laborious months.”

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Jawed was charged first with 5 crimes connecting him with the protests and violence after the Friday prayers. After this, he was charged beneath the NSA. No lawyer was permitted to defend him earlier than the advisory panel arrange beneath this statute, pre-empting bail.

The Allahabad Excessive Court docket took 10 months to listen to his petition towards his preventive detention, nevertheless it didn’t instantly cross any orders.

Subsequent, three extra prison circumstances had been filed towards him. He was then charged beneath the Gangsters and Anti-Social Actions (Prevention) Act, 1986. After the Allahabad Excessive Court docket lastly granted him bail, the Uttar Pradesh police charged him beneath the Arms Act, 1959.

The allegation now was that the police recovered a 12-bore and a 315-bore pistol from his dwelling after it was demolished. However nobody from among the many throngs of crowds of journalists and onlookers watching the demolition noticed any pistols throughout or after the demolition. Jawed denies that he owned any pistols.

Lastly, after 21 months and this battery of prison fees beneath a spread of stringent statutes, he was launched.

What had been the findings of assorted courts listening to these circumstances towards Jawed? District courtroom judges noticed that Jawed was not named as an accused. Whereas the police claimed he had a prison historical past, it submitted no details about any convictions.

Justice Vikram D Chauhan of the Allahabad Excessive Court docket, in his order granting Jawed bail on 5 February 2024, concluded that the allegations of the police towards him had been “imprecise in nature” with no “factual basis”. The police had disclosed “no particular occasion” to point out he was the chief or organiser of a gang.

There was no proof to point out that Mohammad was an “instrument” of violence or instigated a mob, stated Justice Chauhan.

“Normal allegations with out materials particulars and proof towards the applicant couldn’t by itself (sic) be a floor to disclaim bail to the applicant in view of Article 21 of the Structure of India,” stated Justice Chauhan

Justice Ajay Bhanot absolved Jawed of any involvement.

“He’s a law-abiding citizen who holds the unity of the nation and amity between varied communities very near his coronary heart. The applicant has neither posted nor shall put up any messages which disrupt social concord within the society,” stated Justice Bhanot. “A number of individuals had gathered after Friday prayers, for which the applicant can’t be held accountable. Neither is the applicant culpable for irresponsible acts of violence dedicated by some individuals.”

[This article is the first part of a six-part series. Readers may read the remaining parts on Article 14 website.]

[Harsh Mander, justice and peace worker and writer, leads Karwan e Mohabbat, a people’s campaign to counter hate violence with love and solidarity. He teaches at FAU University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and Heidelberg University, Germany; Vrije University, Amsterdam; and IIM, Ahmedabad. Courtesy: Article 14.com, a joint effort between lawyers, journalists, and academics that provides intensive research and reportage, data and varied perspectives on issues necessary to safeguard democracy and the rule of law.]

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Her House was Destroyed by the UP Authorities. She Went on to Observe 53 Punitive Demolitions

Betwa Sharma

[Delhi: “It could happen to any Muslim family,” Afreen Fatima, then 24 years old, told us, 12 hours before her nightmare was realised.

The government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh accused her father of masterminding a riot in Allahabad, detained her mother and sister, declared their home illegal, and demolished it on 12 June 2020 in a feverish spectacle beamed on new channels.

Afterwards, reporters picked through the debris left by the bulldozer.

In the year that followed, the State slapped baseless case after case and a preventive detention order against her father, Javed Mohammad, a businessman and a prominent social activist in the city who had been critical of the BJP amid rising Islamophobia, but also worked well with the local administration over local matters concerning Muslims.

“A dehumanising year,” is how Fatima described it to us.

A linguistics graduate of Aligarh Muslim University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, she was then a fiery activist, far more outspoken about the plight of Muslims under the BJP than her mild-mannered father. But as efforts shifted to securing his release from jail, she seemingly stepped back from the frontlines.

When Mohammad was released after securing bail in all eight cases against him after 21 months in jail, he told us, “Is it not the limit? First, they put five cases, then the NSA, then three more, then the Gangster Act, then the Arms Act. It is only because of God’s mercy that I have come out. This is injustice and an atrocity.”

Over three and a half years after authorities arrested him and demolished his family home, citing illegal construction, no formal charges have been filed against the alleged mastermind of the UP riots triggered by a BJP leader’s controversial remarks about the Prophet Mohammad.

The Allahabad High Court has yet to hear the petition filed by Mohammad’s wife challenging the demolition, which was carried out in violation of due process, including the required notice period and the right to contest the order, despite being listed 60 times since July 2022.

Just as lynchings, violence and public humiliation of Muslims have become routine, extrajudicial and punitive demolitions of their homes have also become increasingly common, despite a 2024 ruling of the Supreme Court that state authorities cannot demolish a person’s property merely because they are accused or convicted of a crime, and prohibiting such actions without proper legal procedure.

The spectacle surrounding these demolitions often gives them a celebratory feel, one that appears to carry social sanction, and has earned Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath the nickname “Bulldozer Baba”.

Fatima, now 27, and a researcher with Polis Project, a New York-based non-profit documenting Islamophobia and State oppression around the world, has documented 53 incidents of extrajudicial and punitive demolitions in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, and Haryana from 2019 to 2024.

The highest number of incidents was in UP (33), followed by Madhya Pradesh (16), Delhi (3) and Haryana (1). The highest number of houses or structures demolished was in Haryana (1,208), followed by Madhya Pradesh (112), Uttar Pradesh (35) and Delhi (22).

“While state justifications may vary, from fighting the ‘land mafia’ to responding to ‘riots’ or taking action against ‘illegal construction’, the core logic remains that of collective retribution. In many cases, demolitions target the families of and communities of accused individuals, often before such individuals are even convicted by courts, or even before any legal process has begun,” the report said.

“Overwhelmingly, the homes reduced to rubble belong to Muslims, often the poorest or the most outspoken among them,” it said.

In this interview, Fatima reflected on the lasting impact of her house’s demolition, the Allahabad High Court’s failure to hear her mother’s petition, her choice to document other similar demolitions, and the details that resonated most with her from these cases so similar to her own.]

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Betwa Sharma: You skilled the demolition of your own home, and then you definitely determined to doc extra.

Afreen Fatima: As somebody who has gone via this, we at all times say Muslims are written about, however Muslims don’t get an opportunity to put in writing about themselves. Proximity to the violence and injustice brings out narratives that will not come out from a protected distance. I had talked to so many journalists and researchers and repeated the identical story time and again, however when the report or story got here out, I at all times felt one thing was lacking. It’s not what I needed to say. I additionally needed to present voice to one thing like this, and what the state is attempting to do. I’m undecided I can do this voice justice, however I’ve tried.

Betwa Sharma: Have you ever recovered from the demolition?

Afreen Fatima: I don’t assume it’s one thing that an individual recovers from. After all, life goes on, and we transfer forward, and it turns into a fading reminiscence, but when you consider it, all of it feels very contemporary. Typically it feels prefer it occurred way back, and generally it feels prefer it simply occurred. It’s a fixed back-and-forth. Once I speak to my sisters about childhood, it jogs my memory that the house the place these recollections are from is not there.

Betwa Sharma: Has it change into simpler to deal with?

Afreen Fatima: I went to see the home two months after it was damaged. After that, each single time I attempt to keep in mind my life in that dwelling, it is vitally darkish. There’s rubble throughout. Even when it’s a blissful reminiscence of me holding my brother’s son, it’s nonetheless darkish. There’s rubble on the aspect. I’m unable to erase the rubble from my recollections. I can’t keep in mind my home with out the rubble anymore. It is vitally unsettling for me—why can’t I keep in mind my dwelling with out the rubble?

Betwa Sharma: There have been a variety of different issues taking place on the time: your father was arrested and jailed, your mom and sister had been in unlawful detention. It should have amplified the trauma.

Afreen Fatima: Really, what occurred to me was the alternative. The trauma of abbu being arrested and never figuring out the place Ammi and Sumaiya had been for twenty-four hours, and their unlawful detention for nearly two days. Till abbu was launched, we by no means actually had the possibility to sit down with the truth that our dwelling had been demolished. We pushed the trauma. When abbu was launched, we needed to relive the truth that he additionally misplaced his dwelling. Typically, my youthful sister and I might place ourselves in abbu’s place. He misplaced his father, his sister and his dwelling whereas he was in jail. I might really feel my ache is nothing in entrance of his ache or my mom’s ache, who was separated from her accomplice for 2 years. I didn’t permit myself to grieve the home as a result of abbu was not round. It seems like injustice after injustice.

Betwa Sharma: You’re not giving speeches. Has the character of your activism modified?

Afreen Fatima: It’s extra low-profile. If somebody tells me to come back to a protest, I’m going. However I’ve at all times been academically engaged with activism as properly. However after the home was demolished, I stepped again from social media as a result of I discovered it was not helpful to tweet and put up. No hashtag may cease my home from being demolished. I finished posting. I wrote papers, and I learn rather a lot. It made extra sense to place my vitality into analysis work. There have been additionally abbu’s circumstances. So we had been both with the lawyer or travelling from Allahabad to Deoria to fulfill abbu.

Betwa Sharma: What’s the delay in your Excessive Court docket petition towards the demolition?

Afreen Fatima: We filed our petition in July 2022, however the arguments haven’t began. Initially, each two weeks our date would come within the courtroom, however for some purpose or one other, the case wouldn’t be taken up. We talked about that it was pressing—it was simply us three ladies, Sumaiya, ammi, and me. I used to be not married on the time. I can solely assume the decide thought-about it not pressing as a result of the home had already been demolished. If our matter was taken up on point out a couple of instances, the decide didn’t come again after lunch. The decide will recuse, or the bench will change or summer time trip. The federal government lawyer will take one other date. Some purpose or different comes up for the matter not being heard. There was a interval when our case was not listed for 5 or 6 months. We moved a petition within the Supreme Court docket in search of that the Excessive Court docket take up our matter and expedite our listening to. We wrote letters to the Chief Justice of Allahabad. Our matter is earlier than the Chief Justice bench, however the arguments haven’t began.

I keep in mind I used to be in courtroom for abbu’s bail listening to, and the petition was listed the identical day. One lawyer remarked that “till the federal government adjustments, your matter won’t be heard. You’ll simply must make your peace with it.” It exhibits that there’s some system behind the arguments not beginning, however what precisely it’s is tough to pinpoint.

Betwa Sharma: What’s the prayer?

Afreen Fatima: The prayer is that our dwelling was illegally demolished and that we be compensated and the officers chargeable for this be punished. Till we get compensated, we’re given a brief dwelling.

Betwa Sharma: How did you get began on this work documenting different demolitions?

Afreen Fatima: Initially, it was imagined to be pan-India. I realised it could not be attainable due to the regional language. Gujarat and Assam in all probability are the states with essentially the most demolitions, however there was a language drawback. A lot of the circumstances aren’t reported in English dailies. I caught with Haryana, Delhi, MP, and UP and compiled the information from 2019 to 2024, reviewing authorized paperwork and reviews from different human rights organisations, inspecting the city planning legal guidelines in these states, and the courtroom selections.

Betwa Sharma: What struck you essentially the most concerning the circumstances you lined?

Afreen Fatima: It’s the identical playbook. Once I was talking to victims from Kanpur and Saharanpur, it felt like a copy-paste of what occurred to us. It’s unusual that it’s not obvious to the individuals round. Like with communal riots, it’s the identical orchestration of violence. Equally, the identical orchestration goes behind each single demolition, however we’re unable to hyperlink them. The logic behind it’s the identical. It’s punitive, it’s extrajudicial. Individuals like Mukhtar Ansari and Ateeq Ahmed, their criminality is on one aspect, however does that droop their proper to be handled beneath the legislation? It doesn’t. Nobody’s dwelling needs to be demolished as a result of they’re a prison. You need to punish me beneath the legislation. The victims are from completely different backgrounds or social strata, nevertheless it was chilling to me how comparable the circumstances had been.

Betwa Sharma: Governments say the home is an unlawful development.

Afreen Fatima: On this undertaking, we have now solely taken circumstances that had been extrajudicial in nature. The home may need been unlawful or on encroached land, however did the event authority observe due course of? As a person, I would do one thing unlawful, however can an authority or an official do one thing unlawful? All circumstances are the place some a part of the due course of is lacking; discover was not given, or if it was,s then it was given half-hour earlier than. Most demolitions in India occur extra-judicially. Even circumstances we have now not taken up are extra-judicial as a result of improvement authorities don’t observe the legislation. The opposite filter was whether or not this demolition was punitive, to punish this specific particular person and their household.

Betwa Sharma: These demolitions proceed regardless of the Supreme Court docket ruling.

Afreen Fatima: What does the Supreme Court docket do to implement these tips? Nothing. The Supreme Court docket locations the onus on particular person officers concerned within the demolition, however doesn’t query the political logic behind it. Typically, this particular person DM or officer within the improvement authority is just not performing on their very own free will. There’s some political messaging round demolition. Some violence occurs, some riots occur, so somebody must be punished. You fulfill the collective conscience of the state. The Supreme Court docket didn’t as soon as query the ideology or logic behind the demolitions. The Supreme Court docket did point out the punitive nature of demolitions, nevertheless it didn’t point out who’s being punished. It takes away from the victims. We’re being punished due to our identification, and if the Supreme Court docket is just not going to spell it out, then it serves no objective. It does little or no to problem the impunity loved by completely different officers, CMs, ministers, and politicians; a chief minister known as “bulldozer baba” or “bulldozer mama”.

Enforceability is just not there, and follow-up can be not there. The Supreme Court docket tips mandate that each state keep a demolition web site (the place demolition notices, responses, and orders needs to be made public), however not a single state does.

[Betwa Sharma is managing editor of Article 14. Courtesy: Article 14.com, a joint effort between lawyers, journalists and academics that provides intensive research and reportage, data and varied perspectives on issues necessary to safeguard democracy and the rule of law.]