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.

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 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 ruling comes in response to a number of petitions seeking action against authorities using demolition as a punitive measure against those accused or convicted of crimes.

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.