SEALING: STF APPEARS TO BE UNDER PRESSURE, SAYS SC

New Delhi, Sept. 7: The Supreme Court on Friday said a special task force, set up pursuant to its order to oversee enforcement of laws on unauthorised constructions and remove encroachments in Delhi, appeared be under some kind of “pressure”.

A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta referred to the report filed by the court- appointed monitoring committee which has claimed that the STF was neither communicating with them, nor keeping them informed about their actions.

“It is a very unfortunate thing. Obviously, somebody is putting pressure on the STF. We do not know whether its builders or others. From the report, it appears that the STF is under pressure,” the bench said. The counsel representing the Delhi Development Authority ( DDA) said the STF has been sharing the reports with the monitoring committee. “The monitoring committee says that not even a single communication has been received from STF except two,” the bench said, adding that the panel was “a committee constituted by this court. If you are treating the monitoring committee in this manner, it means you are treating this court like this.” The bench also observed that the STF officials were not like “school children” that they were required to be told about this. The court initially said it would call the vice- chairman of DDA to explain on this issue.