The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Uttar Pradesh Government for demolishing an individual's house without following legal procedures and ordered to pay Rs.25 lakh as compensation. Welcoming the Supreme Court directive, Samajwadi Party and Congress attacked the State government for "misusing bulldozers". The Opposition parties said officials are taking such action to get themselves "in good books of the government".

 A Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra observed that the demolition was 'high handed' and without authority of law and directed the UP Government to initiate criminal proceedings against those responsible.

The SC also gave guidelines to all States regarding road construction and removing encroachments.

"How can you just enter someone's home and demolish it without following the course of law or serving notice," asked the Bench, directing to enforce the order within a month. "The demolition was carried out without any notice or disclosure to the occupiers of the basis of the demarcation or the extent of demolition to be carried out. It is clear demolition was high handed and without the authority of law. The petitioner states the demolition was only because the petitioner had flagged irregularities in road construction in newspaper report. Such action by the State cannot be countenanced and when dealing with private property, law has to be followed," the SC said.

As per the petitioner, his house was demolished without any prior notice or explanation for allegedly encroaching a highway. The petitioner said the demolition was a retaliatory measure after he informed the media about alleged irregularities in a road construction project. The SC dismissed the UP Government's request for an adjournment, insisting that the matter needs to be promptly addressed.