India's Supreme Court has warned state authorities that bulldozing illegally constructed homes in an "arbitrary pick and choose" way is an abuse of their powers.

Cow slaughter is punished by seven years in jail in Madhya Pradesh, and the burden of proof is on the accused. Slaughter of the cow, which some Hindu people worship as a deity, and its progeny is banned in most of India as is the consumption of their meat.

India's Supreme Court has said that authorities cannot demolish homes merely because a person has been accused of a crime and has laid down strict guidelines for any such action.

The tactic, in which state governments raze the homes and businesses of people as acts of retribution, has been on the rise in recent years.

India’s Supreme Court banned the use of so-called “bulldozer justice,” the government demolition of homes by state officials to punish those accused of crimes that activists said was a tactic predominantly used by Hindu nationalist authorities against the minority Muslim community.

India's Supreme Court released a ruling on Wednesday finding that the country's authorities cannot use demolition of properties as punishment for those accused or convicted of crimes. It set