HC extends stay on demolition of 55-year-old public library

The Delhi high court on Monday extended till February 21 next year its order restraining civic agency North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD) from demolishing a 55-year-old branch of Delhi Public Library (DPL). A Bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal had on November 15 stopped North MCD from taking any further step, saying that the library at Karol Bagh in Central Delhi “shall be kept closed and nobody shall be permitted to enter the premises till further order”. 

“The interim order passed by this court on November 15, 2016 will continue till February 21, 2017,” it said. The court, meanwhile, asked the authorities concerned to file their reply to the petition filed by some scholars and journalists, who have moved against the corporation’s two notices to DPL to vacate the premises claiming that the building was structurally unfit and dangerous. The library was issued the first notice on September 15 and the next on November 4, asking the library to vacate so that the building could be demolished.