Delhi High Court to pronounce order in plea to halt ongoing Central Vista construction on Monday

Delhi High Court will on Monday pronounce its judgment in plea to halt ongoing Central Vista construction in the national capital in view of COVID-19 pandemic. (Anya Malhotra vs UOI).A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh had reserved order in the plea earlier this month. .The petitioners in the instant case, Anya Malhotra and Sohail Hashmi, had sought a stay on the construction activities of Central Vista due to the COVID-19 situation in the national capital and the threat posed by the construction work as a potential super spreader..The plea contended that there was no rationale for classifying the Central Vista Project as an “essential service”, merely because some executive mandated contractual deadline was ostensibly required to be met..The Central government opposed the plea, stating that the construction activities currently ongoing in and around Rajpath and India Gate do not pertain to the new Parliament building or new offices for the Central government..It described the PIL as a "facade to disguise something they always wanted to stop under one pretext or the other.".Central government also claimed that contrary to the claims of the petitioner, there was a medical facility at the site and that workers will have access to such medical facility..Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra appeared for the petitioner while Solicitor General Tushar Mehta represented the Central government. Senior Advocate Maninder Singh appeared for the builder, Shapoorji Pallonji..The redevelopment project in the Central Vista area of Lutyens Delhi envisages a new Parliament House, a new residential complex that will house the Prime Minister and the Vice-President, as well as several new office buildings and a Central Secretariat to accommodate Ministry offices..A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court had, on January 5, given its green signal to the project, rejecting a batch of petitions challenging the scheme for alleged violation of land use and environmental norms.