The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a contempt notice to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai over the alleged demolition of a gurudwara despite the court’s earlier directives that no illegal constructions in the country shall be demolished without the court’s permission.

The court also directed the authorities to maintain status quo as on Thursday and posted the matter for hearing after four weeks.

A bench of Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K.V. Viswanathan, while seeking a response from the civic body, exempted the municipal commissioner and other authorities from making personal appearances.

“Issue notice, returnable in four weeks…. However, it is made clear that the personal presence of alleged contemnors is dispensed with unless so specifically directed by this court. In the meantime, status quo as of today be maintained by the parties,” the bench said in a written order.

The court passed theorder while dealing with acontempt petition filed by Pravin Jivan Walodra, who claimed that the family had owned the gurudwara forseveral decades and had been regularly paying various taxes, including property tax, for the premises.

On October 15, the authorities, however, demolished the gurudwara on the grounds that it was illegally constructed on a public road.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Rukmini Bobde said the demolition was done in gross violation of the apex court’s September 17, 2024, order wherein it was directed that no alleged illegal structure in the country can be demolished without its prior permission.

The bench had passed the order in the wake of rising incidents of authorities using bulldozers to raze the properties of alleged criminals.

Following the filing of a batch of PILs challenging such a mode of demolition, the bench of Justice Gavai and Justice Viswanathan had on November 13 directed that there shall be no demolition of alleged illegal properties, be it of persons accused of criminal offence or for that matter even a convicted person, with the affected party being given a prior 15 days’ notice. Even after orders of demolition are passed, the affected party needs to be given some time to challenge it before an appropriate forum.