Supreme Court To Pronounce Judgment In Petitions Challenging Central Vista Project Tomorrow

The Supreme Court will deliver its judgment tomorrow in a batch of writ petitions challenging challenging the Central Vista project.

The cause list suggests that Justices AM Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna will deliver the judgments. The bench, also comprising Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, will deliver the judgment at 10.30 am.

The court had, on November 5, 2020, reserved judgment on these batch of petitions challenging the Rs. 20,000 crore Central Vista project, involving renovation and redevelopment of approximately 86 acres of land in the heart of Lutyens Delhi, marked by structures like the Parliament, Rashtrapati Bhavan, India Gate, North Block and South Block amongst others.

Last month, the Court had allowed the Central Government to conduct the foundation ceremony of the Central Vista project without altering the status of the site in any manner. It expressed displeasure at the Central Government for going ahead "aggressively" with the construction projects even when the issue of legality of the Central Vista project was sub-judice. The court ordered that there should be no construction or demolition of structures or cutting down of trees in relation to the project. .

The 'bhumi pujan' ceremony for the new Parliament building was held on December 10. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, laid  the foundation for the new building.

The bench heard the petitioners' challenge on 3 issues, vis-à-vis change of land use, violations of municipal law, violations of environmental law. Later, the Court disposed off the petitions challenging change in land use of plot number 1 of the Central Vista Project, adding that it will be taken up at a later stage as the decision on its usage had not yet been taken by the Government.

During October-November last year, the bench held final hearing on the petitions, hearing Senior Advocates Shyam Divan, Sanjay Hegde, Advocates Gautam Bhatia, Vrinda Bhandari and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in the case. Judgment was reserved on November 5.