Supreme Court: Demolition Of House For Crime Of One Person Amounts To 'Collective Punishment' On Entire Family Which Is Impermissible

VIII. PERMISSIBILITY OF THE COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT

87. Right to life is a fundamental right. As already discussed herein above, with the expanded scope of law, the right to shelter has also been considered as one of the facets of Article 21 of the Constitution. In one structure, various people or maybe even a few families could reside. The question that is required to be considered is, as to whether if only one of the residents of such a structure is an Accused or convicted in a crime, could the authorities be permitted to demolish the entire structure thereby removing the shelter from the heads of the persons who are not directly or indirectly related with the commission of crime.

88. It is a settled principle of criminal jurisprudence as recognized in our country that a person is presumed to be innocent till he is held guilty. In our view, if demolition of a house is permitted wherein number of persons of a family or a few families reside only on the ground that one person residing in such a house is either an Accused or convicted in the crime, it will amount to inflicting a collective punishment on the entire family or the families residing in such structure. In our considered view, our constitutional scheme and the criminal jurisprudence would never permit the same.

89. In this respect, it will be apposite to refer to the following observations of Justice Krishna Iyer in the case of Gujarat Steel Tubes Ltd. and Ors. v. Gujarat Steel Tubes Mazdoor Sabha and Ors.   MANU/SC/0369/1979 : 1979:INSC:244 : (1980) 2 SCC 593:

111. The cardinal distinction in our punitive jurisprudence between a commission of enquiry and a court of adjudication, between the cumulative causes of a calamity and the specific guilt of a particular person, is that speaking generally, we have rejected, as a nation, the theory of community guilt and collective punishment and instead that no man shall be punished except for his own guilt. Its reflection in the disciplinary jurisdiction is that no worker shall be dismissed save on proof of his individual delinquency. Blanket attainder of a bulk of citizens on any vicarious theory for the gross sins of some only, is easy to apply but obnoxious in principle.

 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Writ Petition (Civil) No. 295 of 2022,

Decided On: 13.11.2024

In Re: Directions in the matter of demolition of structures

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan, JJ.

Author: B.R. Gavai, J.

Citation:  MANU/SC/1211/2024.

Read full Judgment here: Click here.