On Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused to stay the Delhi High Court decision of May 31 which allowed the Central Vista project to work in the national capital to go on. The HC had dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought stoppage of the construction activity and terming it motivated.
The Delhi HC imposed Rs 1 lakh cost on the petitioners, Anya Malhotra and historian Sohail Hashmi. It had mentioned that the project was if a national importance.
The Supreme court mentioned that the HC was right in concluding that the petitioners were selective in choosing the Central Vista project alone and did not research about similar public projects where the construction was in process.
The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice AM Khanwilkar further stated that the petitioner should not have pursued the PIL before the high court further.
The Supreme Court said that the genuine PIL’s had caused problems and that the PIL’s had their own sanctity.
The Delhi high court had been told by the Centre that the workers staying at the site of the construction had been given all the facilities and COVID-19 protocols were being followed. The Central Visa project plans on constructing a new triangular Parliament House, a new residential complex that would house the Prime Minister and the Vice President, along with several new office buildings and a central secretariat to accommodate ministry offices.
According to the architectural consultant for the project, it had been conceptualised, looking at the traffic increase in the area in the upcoming years, by putting in enough mitigation efforts to ensure there was no congestion or impact on traffic movement.
As a part of the Central Vista Project, the 3 km long Rajpath from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate would also be revamped.
