Punjab & Haryana High Court Directs No Flying Zone Over Chandigarh On 8-9 June To Enable Drone Mapping Over HC Area

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has directed the Union Government to grant necessary permission for June 8 and 9 for the drone survey in the High Court area.

For the collection of geographic information system (GIS) related data by drones, the area is required to remain out of bounds for all low-flying crafts, such as helicopters, which is necessary for the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) report being prepared by IIT Roorkee for the optimal use of space at the High Court.

Acting Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji said, "we direct the Senior Superintendent of Police, Chandigarh, to issue necessary instructions to all concerned, so that necessary permission is granted and during those two days, the area would remain out of bounds for all low flying crafts in the nature of Helicopters. We also direct the concerned Ministry of the Union of India as such..., to grant necessary permission for 08.06.2024 and 09.06.2024, within a period of one week, so that steps can be taken to do the proposed mapping."

The Court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), filed by Vinod Dhatterwal, secretary, Punjab and Haryana High Court Employees Association, seeking implementation of the holistic development plan of the High Court, which includes setting up of multi-storey buildings to cater to the requirement of additional space.

In pursuance of previous direction, the status report on behalf of the Department of Architecture & Planning and Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Roorkee was filed.

It was averred that the progress report has been submitted to the Chief Engineer, UT Chandigarh, which would go on to show that the site visit has been completed and the buildings have been visually evaluated and preliminary site visit report has been given.

"Another site visit to evaluate the NDT (non-Destructive testing) scope of work and to give instructions has been done. The NDT activity has been completed for three buildings and the report is under preparation," it added.

It was further submitted that a drone survey is required to be undertaken to acquire the geographic information system (GIS) related data, which is a crucial input in the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) report that infers the view shed analysis.

The Court noted that, the clearance to fly drones in the site due to red zone implications is stated to have not been received and an application  has been submitted to the Skill Development & Information Technology Section, Ministry of Civil Aviation, New Delhi.

 "The delay in obtaining the required clearance for the drone survey could increase the duration of the project. The proposal as such is given to do the operation on 01.06.2024 and 02.06.2024 from 5.00 AM to 9.00 AM. A request by way of letter dated 25.05.2024...has been made to the Chief Engineer, U.T. Chandigarh, to expedite the permission process at the earliest, and also that officials of this Court need to consider the future aspects of time frame as such," noted the Court.

The Court was also informed that the red zone category is due to the flying zone area of Rajendra Park being used by the respective Chief Ministers and, therefore, for the dates as such which are to be slated, as proposed, there should be “No Flying Zone”. 

The division bench directed Senior Superintendent of Police, Chandigarh, “to issue necessary instructions to all concerned, so that necessary permission is granted and during those two days, the area would remain out of bounds for all low flying crafts in the nature of helicopters”.

 While deferring the matter for July 23, the Court also directed, "the concerned Ministry of the Union of India as such, as noticed above, to grant necessary permission for 08.06.2024 and 09.06.2024, within a period of one week, so that steps can be taken to do the proposed mapping."

Vinod Dhatterwal and others v. Union of India and others

Click here to read/download the order