The Supreme Court on Monday restrained the Assam government from demolishing certain purportedly unauthorised properties after 47 residents highlighted the top court’s September 17 order staying the demolitions of illegal constructions across the country till October 1.

"Issue notice, returnable in three weeks. In the meantime, parties shall maintain status quo," the bench of Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K.V. Viswanathan said in a written order.

Residents of these properties, located in Kachutoli Pathar and surrounding areas of Sonapur mouza in Kamrup Metro district, had filed a joint petition against the demolitions.

Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, who appeared for the petitioners, complained that demolitions were being carried out in violation of the September 17 order, and without prior notice to the residents.

The petitioners alleged the state authorities had also violated their own undertaking to Gauhati High Court on September 20 that no precipitate action would be taken on the matter until the residents’ representations had been decided in the light of an earlier Supreme Court order of February 2020.

They said they had been living in the area for over seven decades and were not trespassers.

In its September 17 order, the apex court had clarified that its interim stay on demolitions would not apply to illegal properties constructed on public streets, pavements, railway properties and the like.

The top court has decided to issue directions to regulate demolitions amid a growing trend among state governments and municipalities — mainly headed by the BJP — of unleashing bulldozers on the allegedly illegal properties of people accused of crime.

On September 17, the court had clarified that it would be issuing not "guidelines" but "directives" on the matter, similar to the 1997 Vishakha judgment that made it a legal requirement to have internal complaints committees at workplaces to handle charges of sexual harassment.

Among the petitions and applications the court is hearing are two filed by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and CPM leader Brinda Karat in 2022 following demolitions in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area in the wake of communal violence during a Hanuman Jayanti procession.

The petitioners had sought a stay on all such demolition drives across the country.

Later some other aggrieved individuals had moved intervention applications and writ petitions challenging such demolitions as illegal.