"He Is Alleging that The Attorney General For India Is Guilty Of Bench Fixing": Read The Courtroom Exchange In Char Dham Road Project Case

TheSupreme Court vacation bench headed by Justice Vineet Saran on Thursday required the papers in the Char Dham matter to be placed before the CJI for assignment to the appropriate bench."The AG has submitted that because strategic border roads are to be constructed, the matter is urgent and should be taken up early. The request for further adjournment is accepted to the extent that the matter be listed on Tuesday and the papers be placed before the CJI for assignment of the matter to appropriate bench", ordered the bench.On Tuesday, the petitioner had prayed for a three weeks' adjournment on account of COVID, which was strongly objected to by the Centre.It may be noted that last year, the Centre had moved an application for the modification of the order dated September 8, 2020 which was passed by a three Judge Bench headed by Justice Rohinton Nariman, in order to permit the Union of India to make roads with 10 mtrs tarred surface as opposed to the 5.5 mtrs as ordered by the Court. On Tuesday, the AG told the vacation bench, "By the original order of Justice Nariman's bench (of September 8, 2020), they have refused to permit us to broaden the roads. But that is on the basis of a 2018 notification issued by the Ministry of Roads which said that the width should be 5.5 m. That notification mentions 'hilly areas' generally. Thereafter, the Ministry of Roads has amended its notification on December 15, 2020. The amended notification says that so far as the roads for defence purposes, which go right up to the Chinese border, are concerned, we have to broaden the roads to 7 m. It says that width has to be 7 m with 1.5 m paved shoulder on either side"The vacation bench, also comprising Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, had on Tuesday asked SG Tushar Mehta to prepare a convenience compilation of all previous orders and relevant applications and documents in the matter so as to enable the vacation bench to ascertain what the orders say and if there is any interim stay on any construction activity.When the matter came up on Thursday, AG K. K. Venugopal voiced his objection to a written note filed by Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, for the petitioner-organisation 'Citizens for Green Doon', praying that "the matter be placed before the regular bench for the reason that the Union of India is engaging in the most unfortunate activity of Bench avoidance". It was contended by Mr. Gonsalves that when the bench headed by Justice Nariman was ready to proceed with the hearing in the matter, the Centre had sought adjournments and now it is pressing that the matter is urgent and needs to be heard expeditiously. He also countered the Centre's submission that the instant issue involves questions of national security and concerns roads on the Indo-China border. He urged that the matter has nothing to do with "strategic border roads".The following is the court-room exchange as it transpired on Thursday:"I am appearing for the Union of India. I strongly object to the statement in the written submissions filed by the petitioner that...", began the AG."We have not received any written submissions and we had not allowed Mr. Gonsalves to file any written submissions. We had only said that whatever orders have been passed can be filed. We have not received any written submissions and we don't propose to receive any", said the bench."I sent a short written note last night...", told Mr. Gonsalves."We told you not to file any written submissions. We had requested you that whatever papers you want to rely upon maybe given to the SG so that he can add it in his convenience compilation", said the bench."There was no time at all. Originally, Your Lordships had set the hearing for Friday but it came to Thursday. At night, there was no time at all to share it. The court proceedings finished and then I was not in a position to get all those documents and give them to the SG in a night. So I extracted a note from the documents and that I sent last night", explained Mr. Gonsalves."You were not required to share anything. We had asked you to only tell the SG what papers you want to rely on, that should be there, so that he can include them in his convenience compilation. We only want to know about the documents already on record because we cannot wade through the records", the bench told the senior advocate."I have placed everything on record before Your Lordships...Mr. Gonsalves is always ready overnight whenever he wants to...", said the SG."I worked till late last night. I would request Your Lordships' to hear my point of view", pleaded Mr. Gonsalves."We had said Friday because that is when we were supposed to sit originally. It was rescheduled to Thursday because of Eid. It was not only you who was put to inconvenience. It was only in the morning at 9:30 that I was informed by my secretary that the matter is today and not tomorrow", said Justice Saran."I have no problems with the bench sitting today. It is only that as my papers came from Uttarkashi,...

"He Is Alleging that The Attorney General For India Is Guilty Of Bench Fixing": Read The Courtroom Exchange In Char Dham Road Project Case

Mehal Jain

The Bench headed by Justice Vineet Saran has directed the Registry to place the papers before the Chief Justice of India for assignment of appropriate Bench to hear this matter.

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