Delhi HC to hear plea seeking to suspend construction of Central Vista Project tomorrow
May 16, 2021
New Delhi [India], May 11 : The Delhi High Court will on Monday hear the plea seeking direction to stop or suspend all construction activity of the Central Vista Avenue Redevelopment Project in compliance with orders issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) during the subsistence of the peak phase of the pandemic.
Due to the change in the roster of benches of the High Court, now the bench of Justices DN Patel and Jyoti Singh will hear the matter. Earlier it was listed before the bench of Justices DN Patel and Jasmeet Singh.
Earlier, the matter was listed for hearing on May 11 and May 12, but the concerned bench of Delhi HC did not assemble, so the matter was adjourned.
The Central government had filed the reply to the petition and defended the ongoing work on Central Vista projects.
The Centre has called the plea "sheer abuse of the process of law and is one more attempt to stall the project" and urged the High Court to dismiss the petition with exemplary costs on the ground that it is an abuse of the process of law.
"Such attempts are going on since the inception of the project under one pretext or the other and in one name or the other. The following facts will satisfy this court that the petitioner has, while taking refuge under the present situation, made an attempt to stall the project under the garb of 'public interest'," the Centre said in its affidavit.
On May 7, the Supreme Court urged the Delhi High Court to consider the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by petitioner Anya Malhotra seeking a stay in construction work of the Central Vista project in New Delhi amid the prevailing condition of coronavirus cases across the country and asked High Court to issue orders related to the matter.
In December 2020, the Central Vista Development Project was inaugurated by the Prime Minister. The Project intends to revamp 86 acres of land in Delhi, which includes Rajpath, Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, India Gate, North Block and South Block, Shastri Bhavan, India Gate and Udyog Bhavan.
The project envisages the construction of a new Parliament building, a common secretariat for central government offices, the Prime Minister's office and residence, the Special Protection Group building and the Vice-President Enclave. The construction work for the project is being carried out since January 5, 2021, after the top court dismissed petitions challenging the project.
