Allahabad College’s retired Urdu professor Ali Ahmed Fatmi on Wednesday mentioned he was grateful and happy that the Supreme Courtroom “understood our pain” a day after the highest courtroom censured Prayagraj Growth Authority (PDA) for demolishing the houses of Fatmi and 4 others in March 2021, allegedly with out following correct authorized process, and ordered compensation of ₹10 lakh to every aggrieved home proprietor.
Retired Allahabad College prof AA Fatmi. (HT Photograph)
A well known litterateur and former head of the Urdu division of Allahabad College (AU), Prof Fatmi’s home was demolished on March 7, 2021 on the bottom that it was an unlawful building on Nazul land.
The administration additionally demolished his daughter Naila Fatmi’s home in addition to different adjoining properties together with these of lawyer Zulfiquar Haider, Child Maimuna and Shahnaz Parveen.
On the time of the demolition, Prayagraj Growth Authority had launched an enormous marketing campaign in opposition to the town’s mafias.
Throughout the seven-month marketing campaign, most demolitions focused the alleged constructions of mafia Atiq Ahmad and his family.
Bulldozers had been used on greater than 2000 bighas of unlawful plots of land mafias near Atiq.
The demolition course of at Lukerganj had began with PDA serving a demolition discover on Fatmi on the night of March 6, 2021.
“The notice, however, was dated March 1. They just threw the notice in the house and when my younger daughter stopped the man and asked, all he said was to look at the notice. I was in Jamshedpur at the time attending a marriage function when my daughter called me up and informed me about the notice. I immediately hired a taxi and rushed back. On March 7, 2021 (a Sunday), the officials arrived with bulldozers to demolish the house at 10am and started the demolition by 12 noon giving us just time to vacate the premises in a hurry,” he added.
Fatmi and others had instantly moved Allahabad excessive courtroom however bought no aid. By the point, the matter was heard on March 8 and the petition dismissed, their houses had already been demolished. They then appealed to the Supreme Courtroom.
Fatmi shared that helplessly watching his home of over 30 years being demolished was extraordinarily painful however so was the lack of his elaborate library, the place he had saved tons of of books.
“It sends a shiver down my spine even today. We were at our wit’s end as to what to do. We received a huge financial setback, but the emotional loss was greater. My wife, a chronic diabetic, never recovered and passed away in September 2021, which was a second blow for us. I suffered a major heart attack in 2022 and had to undergo a surgical procedure,” he mentioned.
After his home was demolished in 2021, Prof Fatmi initially lived at his in-law’s place for about two months earlier than transferring right into a flat he had bought from his retirement funds, which he bought after retiring from AU in June 2019, within the Kareli space of Prayagraj.
“However, it’s a small flat that initially I planned to give to my younger daughter but following the demolition, I moved into it and I am staying in it with my daughter. It does not have the space to keep the books I want. I only have a handful of books now. I gave away most of them after the demolition,” he mentioned.
Prof Fatmi avoided speaking concerning the authorized elements of the case, sustaining that he was but to get a replica of the courtroom order and focus on it along with his lawyer.
“However, I am grateful and satisfied with the Supreme Court verdict as the court understood our pain and termed the demolition as inhuman and illegal. My house that was demolished had six rooms constructed on 160 vargaj (1 Gaj is 8.99992436 square feet) plot and that of my daughter had three rooms. The compensation of ₹10 lakh each is very little in that way, but I am satisfied as our stand has been vindicated,” he added.
Calling the demolition of residential houses in Prayagraj “inhuman and illegal”, the Supreme Courtroom on April 1 ordered the Prayagraj Growth Authority to pay ₹10 lakh compensation to every aggrieved home proprietor inside six weeks.
“The manner in which the demolition has taken place shocks our conscience. Residences of the appellants have been high-handedly demolished. There is something called right to shelter, due process of law,” mentioned a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan.
Prof Fatmi and different litigants even at present don’t perceive why their homes had been demolished. The administration had no motive to focus on us, they maintained.
They imagine that the administration was desirous to clear your complete plot of land (Nazul plot no 19) in Lukerganj locality. That they had earlier declared a portion of it belonging to former MP Atiq Ahmad an unlawful encroachment and demolished it simply days earlier.
Atiq, a criminal-turned-politician, was accused of varied offences together with prices below Gangsters Act. He, alongside along with his brother Khalid Azeem alias Ashraf, was shot useless in Prayagraj whereas in police custody by three gunmen whereas the brothers had been on approach to a court-mandated medical checkup on April 15, 2023.
Litigants keep that as Atiq’s properties had been located on both facet of their homes, the officers, after demolishing his properties, wished to raze the adjoining constructions to vacate your complete plot and this led to their homes additionally being demolished.