India, March 21 -- On March 7, Krishnaveer (single name), was at his house in Basantpur Sainthli village in Ghaziabad, when a Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) team arrived at his door with a bulldozer, claiming that his was illegal and they were there to dismantle it. Alarmed, Krishnaveer moved the Allahabad high court, which in the first hearing on March 18 found that the house was built before the area got notified under GDA jurisdiction, and quashed the demolition order.

The court also said that GDA's demolition order was "manifestly illegal being in gross violation of principles of natural justice and also vague." Krishnaveer said that his house is built on khasra (land chunk) number 182 in Basantpur Sainthali, near the Delhi-Me...