SC asks govts to show compliance with curbs in place for air pollution

New Delhi: Even as authorities here have extended the ban on construction and demolition activities in the NCR till further directions, the Supreme Court on Monday, while hearing a matter related to air pollution here, asked the Centre to justify why Central Vista was still being undertaken under such circumstances.

The point came up before the Chief Justice's bench, when the petitioner, through Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, noted that big sites such as the Central Vista ones were still continuing construction activities — thus contributing to pollution in the city. The bench, also comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant noted that while the instructions issued by the Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR were good and well-intentioned, the implementation and result was "zero". It thus went on to direct all NCR states and municipal agencies to file an affidavit on the compliance of the directions.

Taking note of the submissions, the bench, in its order, said, Mr. Vikas Singh has raised certain issues regarding construction activities in Delhi, we direct the Solicitor General to file an affidavit or get instructions about the areas which fall under the Central government domain.

The bench perused the affidavit of the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change and referred to the long and short-term measures suggested by the commission on pollution and asked Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan to file affidavits by Wednesday evening about the compliance of the directions.

It also asked the Centre, Chairman of New Delhi Municipal Council, and others to file similar affidavits indicating the compliance of the directions given by the commission on pollution.

"We want to give an opportunity to the state governments to respond to the averments made in the affidavit (of the Centre) indicating what are the directions complied with and what are the directions which have not been complied with. If not complied with, then we direct them to comply with forthwith and file an affidavit before Wednesday evening so that we hear it on Thursday," the bench said in its

order.

Solicitor General, appearing for the Centre, said that he will be justifying the position oN Central Vista. As the senior lawyer for the petitioner kept pressing the alleged construction at the Central Vista project, the bench said that the Centre has been asked to apprise.

The CJI referred to the AQI and said that it was 419, saying, "There is another problem of the virus, how do we deal with it." "We can deal with the virus separately," the law officer said.

The bench took note of the submissions of the law officer about the steps taken by the panel on pollution and said there was no use in repeatedly looking into the directions issued by you (panel). The court was also informed that as per its directions, the CAQM had constituted an "Expert Group" to conduct a scientific study of air quality based on available weather data from previous years to come up with a statistical model to pre-emptively deal with

pollution.