Find out pendency of similar case before SC: HC on Joshimath

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday asked a petitioner raising issues concerning the sinking of Joshimath in Uttarakhand to find out about the pendency of a similar issue before the Supreme Court.

Lawyer Rohit Dandriyal mentioned his plea before a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad for listing, which asked him to approach it again after enquiring about any such pendency.

"If there is a petition in the apex court on the same problem, shall the high and the Supreme Court both look into it? Inquire about it and then you can mention. Find out first," the bench said.

Dandriyal, in his plea, has sought to direct the Centre to constitute a committee headed by a retired judge to look into the issue of the sinking of Joshimath and rehabilitate the affected families soon.

Cracks have appeared in hundreds of houses of Joshimath, the gateway to some renowned pilgrimage sites, including Badrinath, Hemkund Sahib, and the international skiing destination Auli.

Highlighting the problems of over 3000 people of Joshimath, the plea has said that cracks have been developed in at least 570 houses due to continued land subsidence.

The petitioner has claimed that the construction activities done by the Ministries of Road Transport and Highways and Power, New and Renewable Energy, in the town of Joshimath in past years have worked as catalyst in the present scenario and they have ''violated'' the fundament rights of the residents there.

''The respondent no.1 (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways) invested Rs 12,000 crore in the programme for connectivity improvement for Char-Dham (Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunothri and Gangothri) in Uttarakhand,'' the petition said.

The plea has said the Ministry of Power has also invested Rs 2976.5 crore through NTPC and started constructing Tapovan Vishnugad power plant in 2013 for 520MW power run-of-river project which is under construction on Dhauliganga River in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.