India, June 28 -- The use of demolitions as a tool of enforcement without procedural compliance transforms a lawful act into a coercive one, the Orissa High Court said recently while censuring the government in a case of 'bulldozer justice'.

The High Court was dealing with a petition that claimed that the authorities had demolished a community centre at the Balipur Mouza in Cuttack district without following the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court.

In his ruling on June 20, Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi described 'bulldozer justice' as a procedure where executive power, backed by machinery rather than reason, supplants legal process.

The court is of the view that the Tahasildar had shown undue haste in demolishing the structur...