The Municipal Corporation of Delhi questioned the appointment of the monitoring committee formed by the Delhi HC last year to supervise demolition of unauthorised constructions.
NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Friday questioned the appointment of the monitoring committee formed by the Delhi High Court last year to supervise demolition of unauthorised constructions in the capital.
Senior counsel for MCD Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned the existence of a 'parallel body'.
Ravi Shankar cited various examples before the court and asked why a monitoring committee has not been appointed for other civic agencies despite flaws in their functioning too.
"AIIMS work had suffered when there was a tussle between Health Minister A. Ramadoss and ex-director P. Venugopal, then why the court at that time did not form a body to oversee its functioning?"
Shankar also pointed fingers over the functioning of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which despite court orders cannot rectify the delay of flights due to fog, and asked why no committee has been constituted till date for it.
A division bench comprising Justices A.K. Sikri and Rekha Sharma told the MCD: "We have the power to form a committee under Article 226 of the constitution and we are adhering to that." The MCD has to file its reply Jan 11.
"We have formed the monitoring committee only when we found our directions were not implemented properly," the bench said while making clear its stand over constituting the body.
On Dec 18, the MCD cited observations from a Supreme Court bench against 'judicial over-reach' and sought dissolution of the committee devised by the Delhi High Court to oversee demolition of unauthorised constructions in the capital.
In its application, the MCD said the high court orders for setting up the monitoring committee and appointing the court commissioners were actually encroachments on its executive powers, and thus, according to the Supreme Court, violated the basic structure of the constitution.
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