In 2010, the Delhi High Court directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to prepare proper layout plans for the all villages of the national capital, so that development could proceed on a predictable and lawful basis. That basic requirement remains unfulfilled more than a decade later.
https://thewire.in/government/how-delhi-erases-the-right-to-shelter-by-withholding-maps
This refusal to complete and publish layout plans has created a legal vacuum in which every brick laid by residents is technically unauthorised. Without a sanctioned layout, there is no defined legal way to build, which means people can be treated as potential trespassers on their own land.
The tragedy unfolding in Aali, Okhla, and many other parts of Delhi is not an accident of unplanned growth – it is the outcome of a planning regime that refuses to adopt transparency. Until officials are held accountable to their statutory duties, and every resident can see the map that governs their fate, the national capital will continue to manufacture crises – and send bulldozers behind them.
by Paras Tyagi
21/01/2026