Residents of a Tiljala building at the centre of a demolition drive moved the high court seeking relief, alleging they were evicted without notice before men and machines arrived to raze their home.
Saiqa Jannat, whose sister’s house is being demolished, said: “The family moved court on Wednesday morning. Before they could seek legal advice, the demolition had begun. They did not even get a 12-hour notice.”
The writ petition is likely to come up for hearing on Friday, a lawyer representing the family said.
“We have sought a stay on the demolition. We were not heard, nor was any notice served,” the lawyer said.
The demolition drive began less than three hours after chief minister Suvendu Adhikari told a news briefing on Wednesday that power utility CESC Limited had been asked to conduct an audit to identify illegal buildings housing factories and disconnect their electricity supply.
A fire in a manufacturing unit in the Tiljala building owned by the family killed two labourers and injured three on Tuesday.
Two buildings are being pulled down. The five-storey building that housed the factory and the adjacent three-storey building.
On Thursday, Saiqa claimed that the owners possessed the necessary documents, except for the no-objection from the fire services department.
Saiqa, a resident of Picnic Garden, said her sister and other family members were now staying at her house after being forced to vacate the premises.
She said the family could only remove jewellery, cash and some study materials belonging to her nephew, a Class X student.
“There was a refrigerator and a 34-inch LED television and many other things that we could not take out,” she said.
Around eight to nine families lived in the two buildings.
A 40-year-old woman living on the second floor of the three-storey building said the residents spent the entire night packing after being asked to vacate the premises.
“We could only take clothes, cash, jewellery and our children’s books before leaving the house,” she said.
“There was a new double-door refrigerator that we bought a couple of months ago. All those things will now be destroyed. This is our hard-earned money,” she said.
A 45-year-old tenant, who works as a car driver and lives on the third floor, said the police had asked residents to vacate the building around 9pm on Wednesday.
He said his family spent the entire night shifting their belongings to a relative’s garage.
“What was our fault? What did we do to deserve this? We had to keep all our belongings in a relative’s garage,” he said.