Supreme Court refuses to entertain plea for declaring Joshimath subsidence a national disaster

The top court, however, permitted the petitioner to approach Uttarakhand HC with a plea to declare it a national disaster

The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday refused to consider a plea for an intervention into the Joshimath subsidence issue and declare the crisis as a national disaster, saying the Uttarakhand High Court was already seized of the matter.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala said the High Court can suitably redress the grievances including of relief and rehabilitation to the affected people.

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Since a counsel submitted that people were dying and in dire need of rehabilitation, the bench told him, “Please do not use the proceedings for sound bites for the social media.”

The bench asked petitioner Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati to move the Uttarakhand High Court with a fresh writ petition or an intervention application.

The court also asked the High Court to deal with the matter with a reasonable dispatch.

The Uttarakhand government led by Deputy Advocate General Jatinder Kumar Sethi contended that apart from this another petition has been filed in Delhi High Court and about this, all of his prayers have been acted upon by the central and the state government.

The counsel for the petitioner, however, said that subsidence has occurred due to large-scale industrialisation and sought immediate financial assistance and compensation to the affected people.