Char Dham: Supreme Court green signal to MoD for widening 3 highways subject to monitoring by AK Sikri committee

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to widen the three strategic highways part of the Char Dham project in compliance with the recommendations on environmental concerns made by the High Powered Committee (HPC) [Citizens for Green Doon v. Union of India]..A three-judge Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath accepted the argument of the MoD on the necessity of the road widening in view of security concerns with the border country."We find there are no malafides in application filed by MoD. MoD is authorized to design operational requirement of armed forces. Bonafides of MoD is apparent from security concerns raised in security committee meeting," the Court said."This court in exercise of judicial review cannot second guess the requirements of army," the Bench added.Court cannot question the policy choice of the government, the judgment further said."We allow the application by Defence Ministry for double lane highways for three strategic highways," the Court ordered.The three highways are: - Rishikesh to Gangotri (NH 94 and NH 108)- Rishikesh to Mana (NH 58)- Tanakpur to Pithoragarh (NH 125)However, the Court also did not brush aside the environmental concerns raised by the petitioner -NGO, Citizens for Green Doon while also noting the conclusion by the HPC that best practices were not adopted by the government in some places during the construction."HPC notes that best practices were not adopted in some places. HPC has also noted harm committed in some areas and has suggested remedies for the same and has suggested future action to reduce the impact," the Court said.Environmental impact of these roads cannot be any less important here, the Bench made it clear."High powered committee recommendations on environmental concerns have to be followed," the judgment emphasised.It, therefore, set up an oversight committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice AK Sikri to oversee the project with respect to the three highways and report to the Court directly on the same. "The oversight committee shall ensure that recommendations of HPC is implemented and not conduct a fresh analysis. If any breach takes place, the chairman of the committee can approach this court," the Court directed..The HPC will continue to oversee the work apart from the three highways, the Court said..The Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna is a program of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways , which was announced on December 23, 2016. The project aims to widen the roads of approximately 900 kms of national highways, in order to ensure safer, smoother and faster traffic movement.These highways connect the holy shrines which have been labelled as the “Chote Char Dham” in the State of Uttarakhand.One of the benefits of the project as claimed by the Central government is that it will facilitate rapid deployment and movement of Indian Armed forces along China border.However, according to Central government’s own notification of 2018, the road width cannot exceed 5.5 meters in the hilly terrains like the one through which Char Dham road is proposed.In August 8, 2019, when the matter came up before a Bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Surya Kant, the Court had ordered constitution of High Powered Committee (HPC) to consider the cumulative and independent impact of the Chardham project on the entire Himalayan valleys.The HPC, with the help of the technical body and engineers of implementation agency (MoRTH) should consider whether revision of the full Chardham project (about 900 Kms) should at all take place with a view to minimize the adverse impact of the project on environment and social life, the Court had directed.“The HPC shall identify the sites in which work (i.e. hill-cutting) has started and the stretches in which the work has not yet started. As far as the sites in which work has started, the High Powered Committee should recommend the measures which are required for stabilizing the area where hill-cutting has taken place, among others, the environmentally safe disposal of muck which has been generated so that it does not adversely affect the flora and fauna of the catchment area of the river.As regards the stretches where work has not started, the HPC will review the proposed project and recommend measures which will minimize the adverse impact on environment, social life and bring the project in conformity with the steep valley terrain, carrying capacity, thus avoiding any triggering of new landslides and ensuring conservation and protection of sensitive Himalayan valleys,” the August 2019 order said.Pursuant to the order, the HPC delivered a report in July 2020.The Supreme Court in September 2020 accepted the report of the HPC but with a narrow variance, that road width shall not exceed 5.5 meters as prescribed in the 2018 circular.Interestingly, this was in tune with the minority opinion of the HPC report.“Whereas, a majority of 13 members of the HPC was in favour of applying the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) circular of 2012, which laid down a certain standard, the minority-five members, including the Chairman were of the opinion that the latest MORTH circular dated March 23, 2018 should govern. We have perused the conclusions and recommendations of the report, in particular, from pages 90-93 in Part I. We are of the view that it is correct that the 2018 MORTH circular should apply for the reasons given at page 93 of the report. Consequently, the 2018 circular alone will apply,” the Court ordered on September 8, 2020.Subsequently, an application was filed by the MoD seeking modification of this Court’s order dated September 8, 2020.The application said that there was a material change in circumstances, necessitating an improvement of roads to enable movement of troops and equipment to Army stations on the Indo-China border. Thus, the application urged that a double lane road having a carriageway width of 7 m or 7.5m is necessary to meet the Army’s requirement.The Central government also amended its 2018 notification in December 2020 to increase road width limit from 5.5 meters to 10 meters..[Read Judgment]