Delhi HC notice on contempt plea over 'non-compliance' of order on seismic stability of buildings

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued a notice on a contempt plea filed against Delhi Chief Secretary, Commissioners of the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi and others for alleged non-compliance with the court's earlier order related to the seismic stability of buildings in the national capital.

Advocate Arpit Bhargava, through the plea, sought directions to take coercive steps in terms of the Contempt of Court Act against the respondents for their alleged lackadaisical approach in taking steps in a time-bound manner in order to save the people of Delhi from earthquakes.

The plea alleged that the respondents have no regard for the orders passed by this court and to comply with the directions from time to time in the present matter.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan, after hearing the submission, sought responses of all the respondents and slated the matter for further proceedings on January 29. The fresh application was filed on a PIL (public interest litigation), which is pending since 2015.

The contempt petition submitted that the petitioners have been pursuing the present PIL for the last five years without yielding any success and therefore trusting respondents in such sensitive matter will be nothing but a travesty of justice and thus, petitioners plead the court to immediately intervene in the larger public interest.

It also said that despite the passing of orders, respondents are not complying with the same thereby attempting to cause an obstruction in the due course of judicial proceedings as well as the tendency to impede, obstruct and interfere with the administration of justice and thus, are liable to be punished in accordance with the law.

Earlier, the court had expressed its unhappiness with the Delhi government and civic bodies over the lack of implementation of an action plan related to the seismic stability of Delhi buildings. t had also directed all Commissioners of civic bodies to file affidavits explaining their plan to deal with earthquakes and how it is to be implemented on an urgent basis.

The court had also directed them to make citizens aware of the precautions that have to be taken and the action plan of the government.

The earlier plea sought directions to the respondents to act in a time-bound manner and apprise this court about the steps taken and intended to be taken in case a major earthquake strikes Delhi in the near future.

The Delhi government, in an affidavit, had submitted that all the five urban local bodies are directed to ensure compliance of the action plan notified by the department in letter and spirit including to complete the Structural Safety Audit, detailed survey to identify the unsafe buildings, empanel the structural engineers, identify the high-risk buildings for ascertaining requirement of retrofitting and would classify the buildings, on the basis of the year of construction, in their respective jurisdiction in a time-bound manner.

It had said that all the ULBS are directed further that all new building plans should be sanctioned as per the action plan notified by the department and to submit their respective disaster management plan and incorporating therein details of rescue centres, details of required logistics at the time of the earthquake, detailed action plan in case of earthquake and list of to whom specific work is assigned.

( With inputs from ANI )

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