Supreme Court: The 3-judge bench of AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna, JJ has rebuked Centre for moving ahead with the construction work in the Central Vista project while the dispute is still pending before the Court but has allowed it to go ahead with the stone-laying program for the new Parliament building scheduled to be held on December 10, 2020.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta assured the Court that there will be no construction activity of any nature on the concerned site nor demolition of any structure will be done, including the further trans-location of trees will be kept in abeyance, until the pronouncement of judgment in all the cases.
Taking the statement on record, the Court directed,
“… the authorities would be free to continue with procedural processes without altering the status of the site(s) in question in any manner, including to continue with the scheduled programme of foundation stone-laying on 10th December, 2020.”
[Rajiv Suri v. Union of India, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 996, order dated 07.12.2020]
