SC fumes at contradictory notes from police, MCD
Terming the contradictory stands of Delhi Police and MCD over sealing drive in the capital as ‘unfortunate’, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the machinery responsible for such operation failed to discharge their duties.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: Terming the contradictory stands of Delhi Police and MCD over sealing drive in the capital as ‘unfortunate’, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the machinery responsible for such operation failed to discharge their duties. The apex court ordered for sealings of those illegal commercial premises not covered under new Master Plan for Delhi 2021.
A bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat, Justice CK Thakker and Justice LS Panta said: “We register our anguish at the manner in which the order of this court was not carried out in letter and spirit giving impression that authorities did not intend to carry out sealing operation as per the court orders.”
The bench expressed its displeasure after perusing the affidavits filed by the Delhi Police commissioner K K Paul and MCD commissioner A K Nigam. Both the chiefs of police and civic body were present before the court to explain why the apex court’s order on sealings was not implemented.
The court said its order must be given effect to. “We never intended the officers to be here. They have other works to do. You are forcing us to do so,” said the court. “You act like that and then say courts are great risk to people,” the Bench added, while pulling up the two departments for bringing out contradictory facts on the sealing drive.
The Bench, which was unhappy with the non-compliance of its orders by the two departments, said, “Some sanctity should be attached to our orders.” Senior counsel Ranjit Kumar, who is assisting the court as amicus curaie in the matter, informed the court that sealing operation has resumed. On this the court said, “We expect that sealing will be carried out without any scope of grievance from any quarter.”
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However, the court pointed out contradictions in the affidavits of Delhi police and MCD. The Police Commissioner in his affidavit maintained that adequate police force was provided to the civic body to carry out sealing and demolition drive in various parts of the capital on April 9. However, MCD stated that there was no sealing operation on that day as there was no information from the nodal officer of the Delhi Police regarding the availability of the force. “The two (facts in affidavits) are irreconcilable,” the Bench observed.
Mr Paul in his affidavit said that adequate police force was not available to assist the sealing drive between April 3 to 5 as it was deployed for MCD elections and also with effect from April 2, the entire border of Delhi was sealed to prevent entry of unscrupulous elements.
Further, the affidavit said, elaborate security arrangements were made for the 14th SAARC summit which was attended by the delegates not only from the member countries but also from China, Japan, South Korea, European Union and United States as observers.
The police assistance was provided to the MCD for sealing process and two properties in north district and four schools were sealed in east district on April 9. Apart from this, police assistance was also provided to other civic agencies for the removal of unauthorised construction/demolitions in north, central, south-west, west-south and east Delhi as per the directions of the Monitoring Committee appointed by the Delhi High Court, the affidavit said.
The Bench pointed this fact to the MCD and wanted to know how it was saying that police force was not provided to carry out sealing operations on April 9. The MCD counsel Sanjib Sen’s reluctance to give straight answer infuriated the Bench which said that for petty issue like this so much time was being wasted. “It is a petty matter and for 10 lines in the affidavit we have spent more than 10 minutes. It is very unfortunate,” it said. ”We cannot go on adding your oral submission.
The affidavit should be crystal clear,” it said. The Bench even wanted to know from additional solicitor general Amrender Sharan, who appeared for the Delhi Police, as to how he would respond to the MCD statement that there was no communication about providing police force for carrying sealing drive on April 9.
The Bench said from the police affidavit the impression that emerges is that there was compliance of orders of both the apex court as well as High Court but MCD said “nothing has been done on April 9”. The court will hear the bunch of petitions challenging the validity of MPD 2021 on May 9.
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