This trend of bulldozer justice has seen heavy machinery being deployed to demolish houses of those who have protested and have been accused of rioting.
Houses, shops and small establishments have been bulldozed in India, disproportionately targeting Muslims in the Hindu-majority country.
[6][7] Bulldozer Justice began with the evoking of the machine by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of the BJP.
By 2020, property belonging to numerous criminals such as Vikas Dubey, as well as politician-strongmen and gangsters Mukhtar Ansari and Atique Ahmed had been demolished using bulldozers.
Similarly, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, another state with a BJP-based CM, began usage of the bulldozer in March 2022 against properties of the mafia, accused rapists and rioters.
By late April 2022, bulldozers had also been used on the property of rioters in Delhi and Gujarat, with politics and legal issues ensuing, including over anti-encroachment drives in a BJP-held municipality in Rajasthan, an otherwise Congress-ruled state.
In Uttarakhand, rioters during Hanuman Jayanti processions were threatened with bulldozers parked in the vicinity of property owned by the accused.
[9][10] Critics also argue that giving up on the rule of law and adopting "bulldozer justice" is the initial move toward an authoritarian society.
In such a society, the safety, life, and liberty of individuals would depend on the arbitrary decisions of state officials.
[48] By 19 March, CM Chauhan had ordered the use of the bulldozer against the property of the mafia as well as against gang rape, rioting and kidnapping accused in Seoni, Sheopur, Jaora, Shahdol and Raisen.
[49][51][52] Following clashes on Holi in Khamriya village of Raisen, the administration used bulldozers to demolish encroachments of accused rioters.
[50][55] Following a rape incident on 28 March in a government guesthouse in Rewa, CM Chauhan ordered a bulldozer to be used against the house of the accused, a Mahant.
[65][66] On 20 April, following communal violence in Delhi's Jahangirpuri, local authorities issued the demolition of certain structures in an eviction and anti-encroachment drive.
[76][77] On 22 April, bulldozers were seen demolishing some shops and three temples in Alwar, Rajasthan, a Congress-led state but in the BJP-held municipality of Rajgarh.
[83] As "houses and other permanent structures were targeted" Advocate Dushyant Dave raised this as a primary point before the court.
[86][87] Akhilesh Yadav said that BJP should make the bulldozer its emblem and that it was distracting the Chief Minister from more important governance matters.
[95] Anjana Om Kashyap, a media professional, climbed on board the bulldozers at the Jahangirpuri site and started asking the drivers questions.
[98] The timing of the Jahangirpuri demolitions, four days after communal clashes in the same area, "reads extremely suspicious", says political commentator N. S.
However, this order does not seem to make the judiciary the answer to the larger overarching questions related to the perceived targeting of sections of the population, more than what is already being seen.
In November 2024, the directions were issued by the Supreme Court of India which outlawed bulldozer justice as a tool of punishment for accused or guilty people.
The Court further made it clear that these directions will not be applicable if there is an unauthorized structure in any public place such as road, street, footpath, abutting railway line or any river body or water bodies and also to cases where there is an order for demolition made by a Court of law.