In win for Centre, HC rejects plea to halt Central Vista construction; slaps ₹1 lakh cost

The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a petition, seeking to halt the construction of the Central Vista project amidst the lockdown due to the outbreak of the second wave of COVID-19, and also slapped a cost of Rs.1 lakh on the petitioner.

"In view of the aforesaid matter, since workers are staying on site, there is no need to pass any directions. It's a motivated petition and doesn't seem to be a genuine one," said a division bench of the high court presided over by Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh while turning down the petition.

The court further stated that the legality of the project has already been upheld by the Supreme Court and time is the key in contracts.

The Division Bench, headed by Chief Justice of Delhi, Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel had kept the order reserved after the conclusion of the argument of lawyers of all sides. The court was hearing a plea seeking direction to halt/suspend all construction activities 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.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Union of India (UoI) had opposed the plea and pointed out that the present petition is only concerned with Central Vista and not about other constructions. Mehta argued that here, the public interest is "very selective" in particular regarding the Central Vista project matter. While stating that the petitioner is not concerned about other workmen and other construction works that are going on maybe 2-3 km away from the Central Vista project, he said, "There is something unusual, and beyond what is portrayed as public interest. This is a facade of PIL to disguise something they always wanted to stop under one pretext or the other," Mehta said.

Reacting to the plea to halt the construction, the concerned Ministry of Union had called the plea "sheer abuse of the process of law and is one more attempt to stall the project". The Ministry further urged the High Court to dismiss the petition with exemplary costs of the ground that it is an abuse of the process of law.

Meanwhile, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, who appeared for the petitioner, had shown various DDMA orders and submitted that Central Vista should not be called as it is so, it shall now be called "Central Fortress of Death". He also questioned if the deadline of November 30 this year is so sacrosanct then all of Article 19 and 21 should be thrown away.

Earlier on May 7, the Supreme Court urged the Delhi HC to consider the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by petitioner Anya Malhotra seeking a stay on construction work of the Central Vista project in New Delhi amid the prevailing condition of COVID-19 cases across the country and asked High Court to issue orders related to the matter.

Central Vista project

In December last year, the Central Vista Development project was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 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, 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, which is currently underway, started on January 5 this year, after the top court dismissed petitions challenging the project.