SC reserves judgement on plea against Central Vista Project

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgment on pleas challenging the Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista project, proposed to construct new Parliament and buildings for ministries here.

Following a detailed hearing in the matter, a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and Sanjiv Khanna said, “Heard counsel for the parties at length. Hearing concluded. Judgment reserved. Parties are free to file additional written notes by November 16.”

The Centre had earlier defended the project, and pointed out there would be no destruction or dismantling of any heritage structure or cutting of existing trees for the construction of new Parliament and central secretariat buildings.

Maintaining that Rs 20,000 crore was not being invested immediately and in fact, was total expenditure to be carried out in six years, it said that the project will save substantial expenditure on the hiring of accommodation. It would also increase the efficiency of the executive functioning and ease public life in general as all the key ministries would be located centrally. The project would accommodate 51 ministries in 10 buildings and would save Rs 1,000 crore as rent annually.

With regard to the necessity of construction of a new Parliament building, the project proponent, CPWD, Ministry of Urban Development said that there is no feasibility of accommodating more members in the existing buildings.

The court has so far, thrice, refused to stay the project but made it clear that the validity of the step taken will be subject to the outcome of the challenge to the project.

The petitioners led by advocate Rajeev Suri alleged that there is an illegal change in land use for the project. They challenged a notification issued by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on December 21, 2019, regarding changes in land use for the redevelopment.