SC raps Centre for creating confusion

New Delhi, Sep 18 (UNI) The Supreme Court today again held the Centre responsible for creating chaos and confusion with respect to the sealing of commercial establisments operating from residential areas in the national capital.

The court reprimanded the Centre as well as the MCD for not approaching it before issuing the notification dated September 7 and September 15 permitting commercial activities in about 2100 colonies in Delhi.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justices A R Lakshmanan and P K Thakker made it clear that both the notifications suffered from total non-application of mind by the government.

An annoyed Chief Justice asked the government, ''Is this governance? It is their (Government) manner of handling the issue, which is causing totally unavoidable harassment to the residents of Delhi.'' The matter was taken up for hearing after senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi mentioned the application of a storeowner in Lajpat Nagar for clarification.

The court refused to pass any order on the status quo and fixed the matter for hearing on September 25.

The court was annoyed when Solicitor General G E Vahanvati appeared in the court, the Chief Justice said, ''We have not invited you.'' The court also told the government that ''every time you issue notification a day before, you bring to nought the orders of this court''.

The court, in its August 10 order, had directed that the resealing of the commercial premises would start from September 16 and the government issued notification the previous day to permit mixed land use in about 2100 colonies.

Senior Counsel F S Nariman, who appeared for Federation of Delhi Traders Association, told the court, ''They (Government) want to please traders outside and not inside.'' The court also asked the government, ''Can these notification become valid automatically and the orders of this court get automatically reversed?'' Mr Mukul Rohatgi told the court that the government was playing ducks and drakes with it.

The court also wanted to know whether it was not the duty of the MCD or the government to come to it before issuing the notification and further added that the law-abiding citizens were made to suffer by such notifications.

The court also said an impression was being created as if the Judiciary was, on the one hand, and the government, on the other, were crossing swords.

The court said, ''We cannot pass any order as we do not know the notification. If you issue notification without any regard to the ground realities the result will be total confusion and chaos.'' The Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee had told the MCD that the sealing was to go on as per the apex court's order irrespective of the government notification.

UNI AKS/SC AD DS1437