Can’t harass city residents over delay in Delhi Master Plan: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court said last week and noted that public authorities were harassing citizens as they enjoyed unreasonable powers with the Master Plan still in limbo

Delhi is in an utter mess due to the delay in introducing the Master Plan 2041, the Supreme Court said last week and noted that public authorities were harassing citizens as they enjoyed unreasonable powers with the Master Plan still in limbo.

The court pointed out that the Centre was given a deadline to publish the final Master Plan for Delhi (MPD)- 2041 by April 30 this year. (FILE)

A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia said, “We are surprised that the government does not take steps to prevent harassment of citizens. An utter mess has been made in the city and the public authorities are not willing to remove this mess.”

Directing the desealing of two premises in the Capital shut on orders of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), the bench said, “The whole problem in the city is that public authorities are keeping everything in limbo to give themselves unreasonable powers.”

It pointed out that the Centre was given a deadline to publish the final Master Plan for Delhi (MPD)- 2041 by April 30 this year. “You don’t provide the Master Plan while you continue to harass citizens,” the bench added. The order was passed on October 18 but was uploaded on the website on Monday.

The observations came while considering two applications for de-sealing of premises at Rajesh Pilot Marg and Tilak Marg, which was opposed by NDMC that compelled the occupants to approach the top court.

The court had in the past rued the fact that non-adherence of law has become a problem in Delhi due to absence of new MPD and a blanket legal cover to all unauthorised constructions under the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second Amendment Bill, 2021 passed in February 2021 which grants protection from demolition, sealing, etc for certain kinds of unauthorized constructions for a period of three years.

In August last year, the court asked the Centre and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to specify the timeframe for finalising the MPD-2041. A month later, the government informed that the final approval of the MPD is expected before end of January 2023. Granting a further grace period of three months, the top court had said, “We expect these dates to be strictly adhered to as the matter cannot remain in limbo for ad infinitum period of time. We are sure that final Master Plan would be published on or before April 30, 2023.”

The court in its October 18 order reminded NDMC that it will not tolerate such action from the authority in future. It said, “We have put counsel for the NDMC to notice that if such acts are repeated in future or if the orders (of judicial committee) are not implemented, we have no option but to have the concerned officers before the court and we hope they will not give us an occasion to do so.”