Notice to former north body chief

at the ‘disobedience’ of its order, the Delhi High Court has issued contempt notice to former North Delhi Municipal commissioner PK Gupta, who has recently been transferred to Mizoram.

The court was unhappy with the IAS officer after it was informed that a senior municipal officer SR Kataria (deputy commissioner), was transferred without the court’s approval.

Kataria, a nodal officer appointed following a court order, was entrusted with the responsibility to prepare a timeline for redevelopment of the parking lot at Gandhi Maidan near Chandni Chowk.

The court notice was issued during the hearing of batch of petitions filed by NGO Manushi Sangathan and others regarding redevelopment of the Walled city area. A bench of justices S Muralidhar and Pratibha M Singh also issued show cause to KC Meena, chief engineer of the north corporation for making ‘incorrect statement’.

Seeking personal appearance of both the officers on the next date of hearing, October 23, the bench directed the Delhi chief secretary (CS) MM Kutty to explain if he had any role in Kataria’s transfer.

“This order will be delivered to each officer (Gupta and Meena) personally through the chief secretary of the government of Delhi. … if there is any involvement of the chief secretary in the matter of the transfer of Kataria then he too is directed to submit an explanation to the court by the next date,” said the order issued on Wednesday.

The judges were unhappy with Meena , who had given assurance on August 10, that the civic body would issue notice inviting tenders for construction of Gandhi Maidan parking within a week. No progress has taken place in the matter.

“The court is left with the impression that all the assurances given to the court thus far have been treated with utter disregard by the officers in-charge….. and that too without a sense of accountability,” they noted in the order.

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