'Nobody Wants Anything Untoward To Happen': Supreme Court Stays HC Direction To Open Road Infront Of Punjab CM's House

The Supreme Court on Friday (May 3) stayed the order passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court for the opening of the road to Punjab Chief Minister's house on experimental basis from May 1. The road in front of the CM's residence was blocked for security purposes during the Khalistani terrorism of the 1980s.

"Nobody wants anything untoward to happen", the bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said while staying the High Court's direction.

The bench was hearing the Punjab government's challenge to the order passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while dealing with suo-matter matters pertaining to traffic woes and infrastructure problems in Chandigarh.

Calling for temporary opening up of the road to the CM's residence the High Court had directed the Director General of Police and Senior Superintendent of Police, U.T., Chandigarh to "formulate a traffic management plan as how to ease the traffic congestion".

It further criticized the state government's approach for ignoring public convenience and suggested that initially, the road be opened on working days from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM to ease traffic congestion on such days. Previously, the Court had noted that "roads cannot be closed in perpetuity" when most of the time Chief Ministers are not even there and travelling for work outside the Union Territory.

"The various threat perceptions have been mentioned which we do not want to elaborate and we all feel that the inputs as such regarding the threat of drones and the RPGs being used would go on to show that the opinion is based on a closed mind-set of the authorities who are insensitive to the general public's convenience. Not a word has been averred in the affidavit regarding the law which has been laid down by the Apex Court...regarding the usage of public roads".

Besides the above, the High Court expressed that the Punjab government shall positively act on the Chandigarh Tricity plan.

"The proposed mobility plan for Chandigarh Tricity which has been acted upon shall also be positively acted upon by the State of Punjab and there is no tangible reason as such for the State of Punjab to drag its feet on the same since it is going to be a beneficiary of the said mobility plan which will not only benefit the people visiting Chandigarh, but also the officials who have to travel to Chandigarh from distant parts of Punjab". 

Today, the Advocate General of Punjab, Senior Advocate Gurminder Singh, beseeched the court to stay the High Court's direction. He pointed to the killing of singer Sidhu Moosewala, saying that he was killed 2 days after his security was scaled down. The AG also referred to a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) attack on the Intelligence headquarters.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta supplemented the Punjab government's case, contending that security management should be left to the government. He asked as to who would take responsibility if something untoward takes place within the 1 week for which the High court has directed experiment.

After hearing the counsels, the court issued notice, returnable in week commencing September 2. The High Court direction for opening of the road to the CM's house was stayed till next date, although proceedings in the writ petition were allowed to continue.

"There are two observations which should not have been made...on that we are agreeable...but also let's not forget, sometimes the people are put to a lot of inconvenience whenever there is blockade of roads. The blockade has continued since 1980...I have only said operation of the road will not...let the writ petition...something good is also happening there like cleaning of the road where some people have fallen...other portion also, where the construction should be pushed...this by now should have been done on your own", said J Khanna.

Notably, on J Datta enquiring if there was an alternative to the road in question, the Punjab AG informed that a by-pass was underway and once that is complete, "there will be no requirement".

Before the court parted with the matter, SG Mehta was heard remarking, "the terrorists only have to succeed once, but the agency has to succeed everytime". The SG also expressed that many terrorist incidents do not come to light because they are averted by the agencies.

Case Title: The State of Punjab v. Union Territory of Chandigarh and Ors., Diary No. 19643-2024