The Supreme Court on Tuesday stalled the Centre’s proposed amendment to the Delhi Master Plan 2021 for providing relief to traders from the ongoing sealing drive. The SC was highly upset over “silence” of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and municipal corporations to a February 9 directive seeking their response on whether any environment impact assessment was done before framing the proposed amendments to the Master Plan.
On Tuesday, amicus curiae senior advocate Ranjit Kumar informed the court neither the DDA nor the municipal bodies had responded to the court’s order. Irked by this, the Bench of Justices Madan B lokur and Deepak Gupta said, “This is nothing short of contempt. You appear before the Supreme Court of this country and tell us do anything, we won’t file a reply. This ‘dadagiri’ (bullying) has to stop.”
The counsels for Delhi Government, DDA and municipal corporations were present in the court, but the civic bodies sought two-week time to respond to the queries raised by the court. The Bench was in no mood to entertain such a request since more than a month has already passed since its February 9 order.
The proposed amendments had aimed to bring the floor area ratio (FAR) for shop-cum-residential plots and complexes at par with residential plots. This required changes in the Master Plan 2021 as it forms the basic document for urban planning and expansion in the metropolis. FAR is the ratio of a building’s total floor area (gross floor area) to the size of the piece of land on which it is built. The ongoing sealing drive under the supervision of a three-member SC-appointed Monitoring Committee had targeted shops in residential areas as being unauthorised due to the FAR being different for commercial establishment vis-à-vis residential areas.
The SC also issued orders to provide security to the Monitoring Committee team. It dealt with a contempt petition against BJP MlA
Om Prakash Sharma and municipal councilor Gunjan Gupta, accused of obstructing the sealing drive. Although the court discharged the duo from contempt proceedings, the Bench objected to the derogatory language used by them against political leadership in Delhi and the Centre.
“You cannot insult the Prime Minister or any Chief Minister just because they are not from your political party. This is absolutely unacceptable,” the Bench observed, adding that the remarks made by the two public servants against the Delhi Chief Minister was unwarranted.
“We cannot have people insulting the Chief Ministers and Prime Minister of this country. Are you trying to tell the people of this country that you can say whatever you want and insult the Chief Minister of a State just because he is not from your political party…You are destroying the institution,” the Bench said, while letting off the duo.