Manoj Tiwari, the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi unit, on Monday told the Supreme Court that he had broken the lock of a sealed house in an unauthorised colony last month as a “symbolic protest” against civic body officials. He will appear in court on Wednesday.

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation had sealed the house, but Tiwari had opened the seal on September 16. The court had issued him a contempt notice on September 19 after taking cognisance of a report submitted by a monitoring committee.

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Tiwari’s statement came a week after the top court ordered him to explain his conduct and asked if he would accept the role of a “sealing officer”. He told the Supreme Court he was willing to help execute its directions on sealing and if the court-mandated monitoring committee were dissolved, he would make the city a “better liveable and lawful place” within four years.

He denied he was guilty of contempt of court, claiming he had neither disobeyed the court’s orders nor those of the monitoring committee. The civic body officials had sealed the house in Gokalpuri area without following the “due process of law”, he alleged. Tiwari had asked last week why authorities had closed only one house in the lane, and accused them of sealing properties according to their “whims and fancies”.

The BJP leader said the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2011, protects unauthorised colonies across the city from sealing and demolition.

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“The deponent [Tiwari] had broken the EDMC seal as a symbolic protest against the illegal action of the EDMC officials as they carried out the sealing action contrary to the specific provisions of law and also contrary to the principles of natural justice,” the BJP leader argued in his affidavit.

In July, the Supreme Court ruled that the sealing and demolition of unauthorised constructions in Delhi would continue.