The Supreme Court on Monday said, as it promised to “go deep to find the truth” on how a century-old building housing a public library at Karol Bagh was demolished. A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan was irked after being informed it was not the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) that demolished the building in 2018, but an official who had acted on an oral order. The SC was further displeased when it found no one from the Delhi Library Board was present to contest the case and no counsel was authorised to appear in the matter.

“Land grabbers must be dealt with iron hand,” the Bench told senior advocate S Muralidhar, appearing for private firm Dimple Enterprise, which is the owner of the property and reportedly wanted to construct a commercial complex in place where once the building stood. Justice Surya Kant told Muralidhar, “We will go deep to find the truth. We will pass orders even without the petitioner (Delhi Library Board) contesting the case.” The Bench added, “You (private firm M/s Dimple Enterprise) must have colluded with the MCD and library officials. You must have bribed them.”

The first Delhi Public Library was started by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru near the old Delhi railway station in 1951. The Delhi Public Library, an autonomous body, is funded by the Ministry of Culture and has around 45 branches and mobile libraries in the National Capital. The Bench issued a show cause to the officials of Delhi Library Board why they were not appearing in the matter.

It asked the MCD to file a better affidavit giving complete details of the property; who resided there and the current owner after terming the affidavit filed by the civic body as “misleading”. The Bench said it would enlarge the scope of its investigation to include the possibility of collusion of library board officials with the private firm.

Muralidhar said the dilapidated building, housing the public library, was a 100-year-old structure demolished by the MCD. He said there was no material on record to suggest collusion of any kind between the officials of library or MCD officials with the firm and there was no mention of any bribe being paid.

Justice Surya Kant read out the affidavit filed by the MCD and said the civic body had accepted it had no record of any demolition of the building whereas an official executive engineer acted on oral orders.

“Mr Muralidhar, you know very well how these things work. It is surprising that you are defending the land mafias. Do you think that the MCD official acted on his own? He must have acted on the oral direction of the MCD commissioner. Within days of the order of the high court, the building was demolished without giving them space to approach the high courts for relief,” Justice Surya Kant said.

The judge went on to add, “Thankfully, on the first hearing of the matter, the Bench comprising Justice (retd) M B Lokur ordered for status quo on the property.” Denying any collusion, Muralidhar said the firm had nothing to do with the demolition exercise. The Bench posted the matter on January 8, 2025.

On November 25, the SC came down heavily on the MCD for demolishing the building that housed a public library, without giving a chance to the affected party to seek relief, and said “there is no divine power which can wake you up”. It had questioned how the civic body demolished the building that housed the library since 1954, without waiting for the parties to approach the SC.

The SC had noted that the Delhi High Court passed an order on September 10, 2018, in the matter and without even giving a breathing time to the tenants and other occupants of the building to approach the SC, the MCD demolished the building at around 8.30 am on September 18, 2018.

The SC had further sought to know the “hidden circumstances” for which the MCD denied the party the right to approach it. The SC said its interim order of September 18, 2018, would continue till further orders. On September 18, 2018, the SC ordered that no portion of the property at Karol Bagh would be demolished.

It issued a notice on a plea filed by the Delhi Library Board challenging the high court’s September 10, 2018 order granting six months to the library to relocate its branch to another location accessible to the public.

The High Court had said since the plea before it primarily pertained to preservation of books at the DPL’s Karol Bagh branch, it would not interfere in the dispute over the building where the library was housed.

The order came on a petition against the North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s notices to the library to vacate the premises, which according to the civic body was structurally unfit and dangerous. The library was issued two notices by the corporation, asking it to vacate the building so that it could be demolished.