NEW DELHI, June 29: The Supreme Court on Tuesday fully endorsed the Delhi High Court’s order and dismissed a petition seeking a stay on the on-going construction of the Central Vista Redevelopment Project during the pandemic. The top court also upheld the High Court’s order of May 31 by which the latter dismissed the “motivated” PIL with a cost of ₹1 lakh.
The Delhi High Court by its order on May 31 had refused to grant a stay on the construction in the midst of pandemic holding it to be a project of national importance.
Advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav had filed the petition in the apex court challenging the high court verdict. Yadav, who was not a party to the proceedings before the high court in the matter, has claimed that the High Court was “not justified” in holding that the plea was motivated and not a genuine public cause “by drawing presumption and assumption in the absence of proved material facts and evidence”.
“The construction of Central Vista Avenue Redevelopment Project cannot be seen in isolation. In fact, the whole Central Vista Project is an essential project of national importance, where the sovereign functions of Parliament are also to be conducted. Public is vitally interested in this project,” the Delhi HC bench had said.
The Centre had sought that the petition be dismissed with “exemplary costs” on the ground “that it is an abuse of the process of law”. The petitioners were translator Anya Malhotra and historian and documentary filmmaker Sohail Hashmi.
The top court said the two original petitioners — Anya Malhotra and historian Sohail Hashmi — were selective in choosing the Central Vista project as the subject of their PIL without doing adequate research on such other public projects where construction was ongoing during the pandemic.
A three-judge bench headed by justice AM Khanwilkar said, “We find that the view taken by the Delhi high court is a possible view. Challenge to the findings qua the petitioner is untenable as the petitioners have not pointed out as public-spirited persons, whether the petitioner made any enquiries about other public projects in the city.”
Further, the top court noted that once the Centre told the high court that the project was compliant with the requirements under Delhi Disaster Management Act orders, the PIL petitioners should not have pursued the matter further.
The high court had held that the project being of national importance cannot be stopped as it must be completed by November 30 this year. The petition was found to be “motivated” by the HC as only one project was highlighted in the petition. The court held “Once the workers are staying at the site and all facilities have been provided, Covid-19 protocols are adhered to and Covid-19 appropriate-behaviour is being followed, there is no reason for this court while exercising powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to stop the project.”
The petitioners had approached the top court to expunge the harsh remarks made by the HC against them and the excessive cost of ₹1 lakh. “The judgment, especially the imposition of exorbitant costs, has a chilling effect on public spirited individuals raising genuine issues of public health and on the right of citizens to question the actions of the government and to hold it to account, which it is submitted is the bedrock of democracy,” the petitioners said.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that the HC mistook the petition to be seeking stoppage of Central Vista Redevelopment Project. He stated that the aim of the petition was to raise a public health and safety issue after coming to know that the construction work on the Central Vista Redevelopment Project site was going on at a time when Covid-19’s “catastrophic second wave” claimed many lives. On May 3, when the petition was filed, the positivity rate in Delhi averaged at 29.74% and the mean number of deaths stood at 353 persons per day.
“Since it (construction work) had the potential of being a super spreader activity, on account of the to and fro movement of the workers from the site to their accommodation at Sarai Kale Khan, Karol Bagh, Kalkaji, Nizamuddin etc., it was posing a grave risk to the health and safety of the workers and the residents of Delhi,” the petition said.
The Centre told the high court that on April 19, permission was obtained from the police authorities for ferrying nearly 400 workers to the construction site. After May 1, before the petition came to be filed, on-site accommodation was provided to workers, the Centre submitted.
Luthra stated that as regards other projects, the petitioners had submitted that the high court was free to take suo motu cognizance of other projects which were non-compliant. The issue of Central Vista was taken up as information about it was easily available in public domain.
(Manas Dasgupta)