Delhi HC rejects petition to halt demolition of Pakistani Hindu refugee camp in Majnu Ka Tila

The Delhi High Court has rejected a petition seeking to stop the Delhi Development Authority from demolishing a camp set up by Hindu refugees from Pakistan in the national capital’s Majnu Ka Tila area along the Yamuna river till an alternative plot of land is allotted to the residents.

Justice Dharmesh Sharma on Friday dismissed a petition by a person named Ravi Ranjan Singh seeking orders to the authority to allot the refugees a different plot as per the Delhi Slum and Jhuggi Jhopri Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy before demolishing their tenements.

This policy aims to provide permanent in-situ housing to slum dwellers in Delhi.

Singh, in his petition, also sought directions for embankments to be built along the Yamuna to protect the camp, which houses around 800 residents, and the other similar tenements and religious structures in the area, while also maintaining the sanctity of the river, Live Law reported.

The petitioner noted that the Citizenship Amendment Act was framed with the idea of providing citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from neighbouring countries to help them escape religious persecution, The Hindu reported.

The Act is aimed to provide a fast track to citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years...

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