Kriti Agrawal
A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh dismissed a Public Interest Petition (PIL) seeking the interim suspension of construction activity on the Central Vista Redevelopment (CVRD) Project in light of Covid, with costs of Rs.1,00,000/-.
According to the Court, the government had already indicated that the workers were staying on-site and that all measures had been made to ensure Covid proper behaviour on site.
Since a result, the Court rejected to halt the project’s construction activity, stating that as the workers remain on-site, no question of suspending the building work emerges in light of Covid.
The petition was also labelled a “motivated petition” rather than a “genuine public interest litigation” by the Court.
According to the Bench, “The order in question from the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) makes no mention of construction activities. The project’s validity has already been upheld by the Supreme Court. They are expected to finish the work by November 2021. The contract stipulates that time is of the essence. The work must be finished.”
Previously, the petitioners had approached the Delhi High Court for an early hearing of the petition seeking temporary suspension of the Central Vista Project in light of Covid-19, in response to the Supreme Court’s direction to do so.
The Delhi High Court had directed the petitioners to file a new application in the matter.
The bench deferred its decision on May 17 after hearing Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra for the Petitioners, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Central Government, and Senior Advocate Maninder Singh for the project contractor, Shapoorji Pallonji Group.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the petitioners, told the Court last week that they are not seeking to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision and that their request is restricted to requesting an interim halt on the construction during the peak time of the pandemic.
“The petitioner’s further question whether or how the project qualifies as essential service simply because some executive mandated contractual deadline must be met,” according to the petition.
The Central Vista project was approved by the Supreme Court in a majority judgment in January. While Justice Sanjiv Khanna dissented, Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari authorized the proposal.
