The court has banned authorities from arbitrarily razing down homes but victims say the ruling changes nothing for them.

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