SC agrees to hear Centre’s Char Dham plea on May 14

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on May 14 the Centre’s plea for widening the highway in Uttarakhand linking the Char Dhams — the Hindu pilgrimage sites. The Centre has approached the court seeking its permission for widening of the 900-km Char Dham highway, not just for facilitating the travel of devotees going on pilgrimage but for defence requirements, to enable the movement of troops and military equipment up to the India-China border.

Agreeing to take up the Centre’s plea for an urgent hearing, a bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari said that the matter was of national importance and had to be examined at the earliest.

The court rejected a plea by an NGO, Citizens for Green Doon, which is opposing the widening of the highway on environmental grounds, for a three-week adjournment, saying it will decide the matter after hearing all the sides.

Attorney-general K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, pleaded that

the road width has to be seven meters to enable the easy movement of heavy military vehicles. He was pleading against the Supreme Court order in September last year to limit the road width of the entire Char Dham route to not more than 5.5 meters as was earlier proposed by the ministry of road transport and highways in its circular in 2018.

A bench headed by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman had allowed the width of 5.5 meters. The A-G told the court the ministry has since amended its 2018 circular, noting that the roads are to be used for different purposes, going right up to the India-China border.

Posting the matter for hearing on Friday, the court sought all documents, including its earlier orders, by Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning at the latest.

The matter relates to the Char Dham project to improve access to four

Hindu pilgrim sites in Uttarakhand, but NGOs, including Citizens for Green Doon, are up in arms over the possible landslides and floods as cutting the mountains for the highway may cause devastation and heavy loss of lives.

The Centre earlier asked the Supreme Court to go by the majority view of the high-powered committee that favoured a 10meter wide road for the Char Dham project, which was rejected by the bench headed by Justice Nariman.

THE COURT rejected a plea by an NGO, Citizens for Green Doon, which is opposing the widening of the highway on environmental grounds