Munmun Kaur-
Published On: December 14, 2021 at 16:30 IST
Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the application by the Ministry of Defence for widening the roads that form a part of the 899 Km Char Dham project in Uttarakhand.
This comes in view of its strategic importance for armed forces and the recent developments in the line of actual control with China.
The Apex Court also appointed an oversight Committee headed by Justice AK Sikri.
A Bench of Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath observed, “We allow the Ministry of Defence’s miscellaneous application of 2020 by permitting the double lane paved shoulder configuration for the three strategic highways. At the same time, we have also taken note of the environmental concerns raised by the HPC on its unanimous consideration of the project and the remedial measures recommended. We direct that they have to be implemented by the Ministry Of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) and Ministry of Defence (MoD).”
The Court also said that the objective of the said Committee will be to assess the implementation of HPC’s recommendation.
For this, within 4 weeks both Ministry Of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) shall have to place, before the Committee, the steps taken by them in pursuance of the recommendations with the projected timeline for complying with the same.
Besides this, the committee will have to report to Supreme Court every 4 months and the Chairperson can also reach out to the Court in case of any issue with regards to the implementation.
The Chairperson will be assisted by a representative of the National Environment Engineering Institute who will be nominated by the director and a representative of the Forest Research Institute, University of Dehradun.
The Oversight Committee is also to receive all logistic and administrative convenience from the Union Of India (UOI), MORTH, MoD, and the State of Uttarakhand.
Acknowledging serious challenges that the recent past has thrown up to national security along the borders, the Bench said, “This court can’t second-guess infrastructural needs of armed forces.”
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