Delhi High Court Rejects PIL To Allow Chhath Puja Celebration At Yamuna After Govt Flags River's Pollution Level

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking to allow the public to perform the festival of Chhath Puja at Geeta Colony Ghats on the Yamuna riverbed in the national capital. 

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela rejected the PIL moved by Purvanchal Nav Nirman Sansthan, underscoring that performance of Chhath Puja on the Yamuna riverbed will be harmful for the devotees, keeping in view its pollution level.

Delhi Government's counsel, Santosh Kumar Tripathi told Court that the Yamuna river is highly polluted at this juncture and if the devotees are allowed to perform Chhath Puja on the riverbed, they are likely to fall sick.

He also told the Court that the Delhi Government has earmarked 1,000 spots to perform the Chhath Puja in the national capital and sufficient arrangements are made for the same.

Rejecting the plea, the Court took note of its recent order in Shabnam Burney case wherein judicial notice was taken about the fact that pollution in the Yamuna river is at all time high.

“Keeping in view the aforesaid facts as well as the fact that the chhath puja festival commences from tomorrow, this court is of the view that no orders can be passed in the PIL. The same is accordingly dismissed,” the Court said.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner organization said that the blanket ban on performance of Chhath puja must be lifted. As he said that the Yamuna riverbed can be cleaned, the CJ remarked:

“That's a challenging exercise. It's not to be done overnight. If you want to get involved in the cleaning up process, work over there…. The problem today is, we cannot be discharging sewage in the Yamuna. We are today discharging sewage in Yamuna. Whether it's industrial sewage or it is our own sewage. Look at the unauthorised colonies built at the banks. Their untreated sewage is going into this."

He added: “The problem is it is all in our minds. Our mind tells us we will get these votes we will miss the election if they remain over here and they continue to pollute Yamuna. We are dealing with a petition, 241 jhuggi dwellers are holding the whole city to ransom. Why? Because water is not being allowed to stroll into Yamuna. The government will not give them a flat or reallocation. They will keep them over there so that the message goes to entire slum dwellers that they are protecting their interest. All politicians will go there and give long speeches. Only 241! They will not allow city's water to flow into Yamuna because if that flows and if those 241 get removed, they'll have no slogan to contest an election.”

“Today, our mindset needs to be cleaned. The problem is, in our mind the Yamuna is uncleaned. We are not cleaning our minds. Sorry to say and if you can clean that, then you can clean Yamuna very quickly. There is no unanimity in our views today that we have to clean Yamuna unfortunately. That's not the priority,” he added further.

Case Title: Purvanchal Nav Nirman Sansthan v. GNCTD

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 1204