Snehal Upadhyay-
The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed against a May 31 judgement of the High Court of Delhi refusing to halt the Central Vista redevelopment project amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier, the petitioner had approached the High Court of Delhi for directions to stop the construction activities of Central Vista during COVID-19, stating that this could lead to a widespread virus.
The High Court of Delhi dismissed the plea and called the plea “motivated” and imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner, which led to the present appeal in the Supreme Court.
The bench consisting of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose questioned why the petitioners wanted to stop the construction of the project citing COVID-19, which targeted only Central Vista whereas construction work of other similar projects was still going on.
Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra from the petitioners’ side referred to annexures in the plea and responded that there was complete research done and materials for the same is available on this project.
The Court asked the appellant whether there had been any similar construction going on in the national capital.
“Was honest research conducted about the kinds of construction work that were going on? Is that reflected in your petition?” asked Justice Maheshwari.
The Bench observed that the project’s construction activity was going in accordance with all the protocols.
The Court dismissed the appeal by making the statement that there should be no interference made with the Delhi High Court’s judgement.