The Supreme Court, in this ruling, reaffirms the rule of law as a living shield against the tendencies of unchecked authority. The power to determine guilt or innocence and to determine punishment rests exclusively with the judiciary: a principle which the executive cannot, under any circumstances, usurp.

By engaging in arbitrary demolitions, the executive has illegitimately trespassed on the sacred territory of the judiciary, assuming the role of prosecutor, judge and executioner in one fell swoop. Such acts, the court declared, constituted nothing less than a “parody” of the legal system.

Underlying this decision is a fundamental principle: that public office is not a license for uncontrolled power, but a position of administration, linked to the Constitution and the principles of transparency, fairness and equality. This decision reiterates “doctrine of public trust”which considers state officials not as masters of their domains, but as trustees of the public interest.

To exceed the authority granted by the Constitution is not only an overreach, but a breach of trust, a breach that undermines the legitimacy of the state’s mandate. When officials violate due process by demolishing homes without respecting the rule of law, they betray the public trust. Arbitrary demolitions carried out under the guise of routine administrative action generate fear rather than respect, eroding the fabric of social cohesion.