Motivated tag, fine unfair: SC moved against HC order on Central Vista

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Courts judgement declining to stop the construction activity at the Central Vista Redevelopment project amid the second wave of Covid19 pandemic and imposing Rs 1 lakh cost on the petitionersPetitioners Anya Malhotra a translator and Sohail Hashmi a historian and documentary filmmaker claimed the High Court judgment apart from misconstruing their bonafide intentions without cause cast them in negative light as it dismissed their plea on the face value without any inquiryThe petitioners have argued that their plea was a purely public health and safety issue during the catastrophic Covid second wave which ravaged the capital and exposed its crumbling health infrastructure But the High Court construed it as an attack on the projectThe plea argued that the ongoing construction activity has the potential of being a super spreader activity on the account of toandfro movement of the workers from the site to their accommodation located in various parts of the city poses a grave risk to the health and safety of workers and the residents of DelhiAlso read Govt to set up lsquodefence enclaversquo under Central Vista redevelopment project ReportThe petition filed by advocate Nitin Saluja said The petitioners are not only aggrieved by the dismissal of the writ petition but also unsubstantiated findings and adverse observations in particular the observation that the petition was motivated ill intended andor lacked bonafidesFurther the order gauges the public importance of the project without there being any averment by the Centre and others except that the project needs to comply with a contractual deadline the plea addedThe petitioners argued that the imposition of exorbitant costs has a chilling effect on public spirited individuals raising genuine issues of public health and on the right of the citizens to question the actions of the governmentThe plea contended that the High Court erroneously dismissed the petition by solely relying upon the respondents submissions government authorities and the private contractor at face value without any inquiry on the alleged compliance by them with Delhi Disaster Management Authority DDMA orders by providing on site accommodation for workers or following Covid19 protocols for their health and safetyThe petitioners argued that High Court not only failed to exercise its extraordinary constitutional powers under Article 226 to address the gravity of the health concerns but castigated the wellintended public concern of the petitioners as motivated without any basisThe High Court had said Central Vista project is of national importance and it has to be completed within timebound schedule by November 2021 The court said public is widely interested in the project which includes a new triangular Parliament buildingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever