Govt caught between two court orders

GURGAON: The urban local bodies department is caught in a dilemma between the judgments given by both the Supreme Court and the high court in the matter pertaining to the 900m IAF restricted zone.
While the Supreme Court has ordered a status quo to be maintained in this zone till it delivers a final judgment, recently the Punjab and Haryana high court had ordered the MCG to provide temporary water and electricity connections to the residents living within the restricted zone. Not willing to get caught between the two courts and in order to avoid a contempt of court situation, the department has formed a committee to study both the orders together. The department is also checking old records before these connections are granted.

On January 31, while hearing a plea file by the Gurgaon municipal commissioner, the HC, in a major relief to thousands of families living within the 900m zone, ordered the MCG to provide water and electricity supply to those houses which came into existence before February 2011.

However, the MCG and ULB authorities soon realized that they might not be able to provide these connections since a similar case is pending in the Supreme Court and in the last hearing, the SC had ordered a status quo to be maintained.

According to senior ULB official, the new connections will not be given till the time the newly-formed committee submits its report. “We have formed a committee consisting mainly of town and country planning department officials who will closely study both the judgments. We are caught in a delicate situation since if we do not follow the high court order it might be considered a contempt of court. However, if we do follow the HC order, the Supreme Court might say it is a contempt of court,” the ULB official said.

“It has also come to our knowledge that a 1988 court order in the same issue has attained finality and we have asked the committee to study this court order as well. The Gurgaon deputy commissioner will assist this committee in getting the records,” the official said. Meanwhile, the MCG is preparing a mechanism by which it can check whether a structure in the 900m area was built before February 2011 or not.

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