Ahmedabad, July 1 -- Five Surat Municipal Corporation engineers were suspended in Surat on Wednesday after the Gujarat High Court pulled up the authorities for the controversial demolition of over 100 houses in the city's Nasirnagar area without any formal orders.

The demolition, carried out over three days from May 30 to June 1, razed more than 100 houses in Nasirnagar, a slum settlement in Surat's Ved Darwaja area. When questions were initially raised about the demolition, no government agency came forward to claim responsibility.

Twenty-six residents approached the high court against the demolitions carried out without notice to the people. During the hearing on June 29, justice Nikhil Kariel said that police protection had been soug...