On Friday, the SC refused to entertain a plea against deferment of hearing on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) searching for path to halt building beneath the redevelopment of the Central Vista Avenue in the course of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, for urgent listing of the matter, the leading court gave liberty to petitioners to method the Delhi High Court. According to a PTI report, the apex court was hearing the appeal against the higher court’s May 4 order which had listed the hearing of PIL on May 17 saying it very first desires to go via what the leading court has deliberated in its January 5 judgment, providing a go ahead to the redevelopment project. Yesterday, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra was asked by the apex court to mention the matter just before the HC for urgent listing on May 10.
The senior advocate told the SC bench that the matter is of intense value as India is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Luthra stated that labours from Sarai Kale Khan and Karol Bagh region are getting transported to Raj Path and Central Vista, exactly where building is going on. This increases the possibilities of spread of novel coronavirus infection amongst them.
Luthra referred to the letter written by CPWD to DDMA for the continuation of building activity in Central Vista on the ground that it is time bound work. On the ground that it was critical activity, permission was granted but how is building an critical activity, he asked. Luthra additional stated that we can not danger the lives of workers as effectively as their households and place more stress on the country’s well being care program, adding that the peak of the pandemic’s second wave is getting anticipated by May 15 and HC has listed the matter for May 17. This wouldn’t serve any objective, he stated.
The hearing on a PIL, which had sought path to the central government to halt building activities at the Central project due to the ongoing COVID-19 circumstance, was deferred by the HC. According to petitioners Sohail Hashmi, a historian and documentary filmmaker and Anya Malhotra, who functions as a translator, the project has the possible to be a super spreader if permitted to continue in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the HC, they have stated that the project continuation was a matter of concern in view of the “crumbling” healthcare program as effectively as the lives at stake of the workers employed at the project building web page.