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New Delhi. The Center on Friday asked the Supreme Court to urgently hear its plea seeking withdrawal of the court’s earlier order as the Army needs to widen roads in the Chardham highway project. This highway goes to the border of China and it is necessary to do so in view of the difficulties faced there. The strategically important 900-km-long Chardham Highway project aims to provide all-weather connectivity to the four pilgrimage towns of Uttarakhand – Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.
Attorney General KK Venugopal informed a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna that the Defense Ministry has filed an application seeking withdrawal of the earlier order. Venugopal said, we want that petition to be heard on an urgent basis. In view of the problems in the northern region, the army needs to widen the border roads there. He said that the court had earlier said that the width should not exceed five and a half metres. The bench directed the registry to take directions from the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and list the matter along with other petitions before an appropriate bench.
The top court was hearing a petition filed by Citizens for Green Doon, an NGO, seeking a direction to stop felling of trees without permission on the Ganeshpur-Dehradun Road (NH-72A), part of the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway. was done. The top court said that once the forest department’s approval is received, no separate permission is required for felling of trees. Advocate Ritwik Dutta, appearing for the NGO, submitted that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has said that clearance from the competent authority is required for cutting trees and there is no such approval in this case.
The top court said the matter would be listed before an appropriate bench after the Diwali holiday. Another lawyer, appearing for the NGO, said that the Attorney General may be confused in the matter as it is the same organization which had challenged the road widening in the Chardham project and the cutting of trees on the Ganeshpur-Dehradun road is a different matter.
The top court had on September 7 refused to entertain a PIL filed by the NGO challenging the forest and wildlife clearance granted to Ganeshpur-Dehradun Road (NH-72A), a part of the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway, and the petitioner Asked to first approach the National Green Tribunal with your complaints.
The top court took note of the fact that the first phase of forest clearance was given in September last year and wildlife clearance for the 19.78-km stretch of road from Ganeshpur (in UP) to Dehradun was granted on January 5, 2021.
Earlier, on May 11, the apex court had said that it would hear the matter related to the widening of the Chardham highway project. The Center had told the court that there is a question of national security involved as the road leads to the Chinese border.
The Center, in its affidavit filed earlier in the matter, had urged the apex court to accept the majority report of 21 members of the High Powered Committee (HPC) on concrete road construction keeping in view the strategic requirement and snow clearance needs. It was recommended to develop ‘two-lane’ with Aadhaar.
