Supreme Court Denies Urgency to Plea Challenging Central Vista Project

The Central Vista Project seeks to build a new Parliament and central government offices in Lutyens Delhi. The Centre assigned ₹20,000 crores for the project. A petition challenging the land-use of 86 acres land in Lutyens is filed in the Supreme Court. It alleges that the project is a “brash move” which will deprive people of enjoying open and green spaces. The petitioner, Mr. Rajeev Suri, had earlier filed a writ petition in Delhi High Court.

On February 11, 2020, a single-judge bench of the High Court had directed Delhi Development Authority to approach the Court before notifying proposed land-use changes. Thereafter, Delhi Development Authority and Central Government challenged the decision before the division bench. Thereby the division bench stayed the order passed by the single judge. Aggrieved by this, Mr. Suri approached the Supreme Court. On 06.03.2020, the apex court transferred the matter to itself in “larger public interest”. A public notice issued by the Delhi Development Authority on December 19, 2019, stood under challenge.

However, the Government issued a notification on March 20, 2020, which superseded the impugned notice. Thus, the petitioner filed another petition challenging this notification. He contended that the act is the subjugation of the rule of law and judicial protocol. The Bench comprising of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice Aniruddha Bose noted that another petition on the Central Vista Project is already pending before the Court. Thus, it asked the petitioner not to duplicate. Further, it observed that there is no urgency. For the reason, that because of the COVID-19 situation, nothing is going to be done by anyone.