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Shaikh Azizur Rahman

Victims of India’s “bulldozer justice” are turning to the Supreme Court in hopes of stopping the growing use of heavy machinery to raze homes and businesses owned by Muslims, as critics accuse states governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party of striking fear into the minority community.
On August 17, authorities demolished the one-storey house of autorickshaw driver Rashid Khan in Udaipur, northern Rajasthan state, which he was renting to two families.
He received only a few hours’ notice that the structure, deemed illegally built on forest land, would be destroyed.
Khan, who filed a petition with the apex court last month seeking compensation, believes his home was targeted due to a violent incident involving a Muslim tenant’s son, who was accused of stabbing a Hindu student to death on August 16.
“I strongly believe they demolished my house because of the August 16 incident,” he told This Week in Asia.
Khan is among a growing number of Muslims facing the brunt of the bulldozers, which have become “tools of oppression” in India, according to human rights activist Harsh Mander.
“These have targeted the informal urban poor in ways bereft of both elementary compassion and a sense of justice. But what has transpired over the last four years under Modi is dangerously different,” he said.
“The bulldozer has become a deadly weapon in the ideological war of the BJP and its ideological lodestar, the RSS, against Indian Muslims.”
Mander said there was “no law” that permits the state to demolish a person’s home due to the actions of a resident.
Since 2017, the use of bulldozers to destroy the livelihoods of individuals accused of crimes has surged, particularly in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
‘Grave injustice’
Khan’s home was targeted after the son of one of his tenants allegedly killed a classmate, igniting religious tensions and arson attacks on nearby houses, shops and vehicles.
Hindu right-wing groups angrily demanded the swift demolition of the suspect’s residence.
Khan said he was the victim of a “grave injustice”, and questioned why his property was bulldozed just because the alleged perpetrator lived there.
“They said that my house was illegal. If that is the case, hundreds of houses in the entire locality are illegal, being built on the encroached forest land. Why did they demolish only my house, and that too, just a day after the stabbing?” he asked.


On September 2, while hearing Khan’s petition and others contesting similar cases, the Supreme Court ruled that punitive demolitions cannot be justified, even if the property belongs to someone accused or convicted of a crime.
Government lawyer Tushar Mehta claimed that demolitions occurred only when structures violate municipal laws.
However, the bench noted that “looking at the complaints, we feel there is a breach … If a construction is unauthorised, action has to be taken against it in accordance with law.”
Justice KV Viswanathan said that demolitions of unauthorised structures should follow proper procedures, indicating that the court would issue nationwide guidelines.
“First issue notice, give time to answer and seek legal remedies, before going for demolition,” he said.
Lawyers for Khan and other petitioners, including the Islamic scholars’ organisation Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, have sought a court directive to halt the arbitrary destruction of properties.
Bulldozer backlash
In recent years, more than 153,000 homes have been levelled by different state governments in India, displacing about 738,000 people, according to the Housing and Land Rights Network.
The housing rights group reported that 59 per cent of these demolitions were conducted under the pretext of slum clearance and urban beautification.
M Huzaifa, a New Delhi-based lawyer, described punitive demolitions in BJP-ruled states as “state-sanctioned revenge, operating outside the boundaries of law under the guise of civil sanctions”.
He argued that the presumption of innocence is a fundamental aspect of justice, which is undermined when authorities impose extrajudicial punishments through immediate demolitions.
“Demolishing homes without due process is not justice – it is a brazen abuse of state power, targeting families in a collective punishment scheme,” he said.
“‘Bulldozer justice’ is a misnomer, it is neither justice nor lawful. It is an unconstitutional, illegal act of violence disguised as state action.”
Amnesty International in a February statement urged the Indian authorities to stop bulldozer justice “immediately”.

Apoorvanand, a political commentator and professor at the University of Delhi, described the bulldozer as a symbol of the “sadistic state violence” unleashed against Muslims by the BJP.
“At the slightest pretext after any allegations involving Muslims, the authorities rush to bulldoze their houses and properties, later declaring it a legitimate action against illegal structures, which is only an excuse to be given to the court,” he said.
The state, the academic added, “has taken the role of the mob and done away with the process of law to destroy Muslim lives and livelihoods”.
Zafarul-Islam Khan, former chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission, said that even legally owned properties belonging to Muslims have not been spared in BJP-ruled states.
He noted an increase in anti-Muslim violence, including lynchings and the destruction of graveyards and Islamic schools, since Modi took office in 2014.
“Now petitions have been filed against such flagrant illegal actions against Muslims. There is hope that finally, after thousands of such cases across India, this illegal activity will be blocked,” he said.
The Supreme Court is set to continue hearing related pleas on September 17.


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Victims urge the Supreme Court to stop Muslim-owned properties being arbitrarily razed under the guise of removing ‘illegal’ structures


Victims urge the Supreme Court to stop Muslim-owned properties being arbitrarily razed under the guise of removing ‘illegal’ structures.


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Human rights