High Court disposes of petition by Janta Colony dwellers

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today disposed of a petition filed by 109 Janta Colony dwellers.

The dwellers, among other things, had challenged a notice asking them to vacate their premises “within a week” of its issuance. The Chandigarh Housing Board, following the disposal of the matter, will now decide the residents’ representation regarding rehabilitation.

Janta Colony in Sector 25 is the last slum in the city. In their petition placed before the Bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Alok Jain, the residents had challenged their imminent eviction.

Through the notice, they have been directed to vacate their dwellings at their own expense. Directions were also sought for the quashing of the impugned order dated February 25, whereby their request for alternative accommodation was rejected “without giving opportunity of being heard”.

The residents had sought to restrain the respondents — including the Union Territory of Chandigarh, the Deputy Commissioner and the Chandigarh Housing Board — from evicting them from their homes and jhuggis in Janta Colony until the final adjudication of the writ petition.

The petitioners were represented by senior advocate RS Bains with counsel Sanjiv Kumar Yadav. Senior advocate and senior standing counsel Amit Jhanji appeared for the UT along with additional standing counsel Sanjiv Ghai. The Bench was also assisted by advocate Hakikat Singh Grewal.

The petitioners asserted that they were given electricity and water connections as well as sewage facilities. They added that they had been regularly paying utility charges and were holders of valid ration cards, voter IDs, Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and driving licence.

Referring to a related matter, the petitioners contended that Colony Number 4 was demolished in April 2022. However, 290 flats were allotted to some of the occupants whose claims for accommodation were rejected under the small flat scheme.

The petitioners said they were called by the office of Deputy Commissioner-cum-Estate Officer for considering their claims for alternative accommodations in view of the directions issued by the High Court in other related matters. But no order on such representation has been passed to date.

“The residents of Janta Colony, Sector 25, Chandigarh, including the petitioners, have been served the impugned notice dated nil issued by the respondents for demolition of constructed houses jhuggis etc at Janta Colony. Hence the present writ petition,” the court was told.

The petitioners said whether the actions of the respondents in evicting the petitioners and other jhuggi dwellers without rehabilitation and rending them homeless was in violation of Article 14, 19, and 21.

Chandigarh