Punjab & Haryana HC refuses to recall its order on paver blocks in green belt

The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has dismissed an application from the Chandigarh administration against the court order to lay paver blocks in the green belt area in HC vicinity to facilitate parking of vehicles.

“...this court had dwelt upon all the pros and cons and the acute problem of dire scarcity of parking space in the high court premises before passing the said order. This court had also taken note of the anxiety expressed by the UT administration that the said area of kutcha parking is notified as a green belt..,” the HC bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sumeet Goel said while dismissing the plea.

The order comes at a time when a section of residents are protesting against the demolition of a wall at the iconic Rock Garden, which is also being done to ease traffic movement in the HC area. The wall demolition was planned after HC orders on taking steps to improve mobility in the area. Both the orders were passed in the same proceedings.

On February 7, the HC had directed the administration to lay green paver blocks in a green belt area near the court complex even as UT had expressed its reservations.

In the application, the UT had argued that the area in question falls within the core zone of the inscribed property of UNESCO World Heritage Site -- Capitol Complex. Also, using a green belt as parking will leave a negative impact on the assigned usage of the land and result in the change of use of the premises. It will be in contradiction of the provisions contained in the notified Chandigarh Master Plan-2021 wherein open and green spaces are recognised as inviolable open spaces to prevent them being diverted to other land uses, the UT had argued.

The high court, however, maintained that laying of paver blocks would facilitate sustained development. “…therefore, it is rather in the interest of the UT administration and would greatly help in resolving the crisis of acute shortage of parking space in the high court,” it noted, dismissing the plea for recalling the February 7 order.

The court also asserted that the green pavers are meant to allow water to percolate down to replenish groundwater and therefore, are more beneficial and ecofriendly as compared to pavements or roads.

Existing parking can house only 600 4-wheelers

It reiterated that there is an extreme shortage of parking space at high court. At any given hour, about 3,000-4,000 four-wheelers visit the HC out of which at least 2,000, if not more, are permanently parked. The existing underground multi-level parking which has three tiers can accommodate only 600 four-wheelers while the remaining vehicles are parked in the open parking areas, it had said.

A kutcha parking is already functional at the site where nearly 200-300 cars can be accommodated. At one point of time, the Bar body had even started collecting fees from visitors for parking. But the same was stopped by the HC through an order last year. The green belt has a few trees and thick bushes towards the Sukhna Lake road end. It was being used as parking space for nearly five years now.

The orders have been passed while hearing a 2023 public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Vinod Dhaterwal, an office-bearer of the high court employees’ association, demanding infrastructure development of the HC complex in the wake of increasing traffic congestion, space crunch and implementation of a holistic development plan. The plan, conceptualised more than a decade back, envisages setting up of multi-storey buildings to cater to the requirement of additional space at the high court complex. However, the plan had to be put on hold as the Capitol Complex was declared a World Heritage site in 2016.

As per officials, UT has removed 50-odd trees and demolished around 30% of the wall of iconic Rock Garden, created by Nek Chand. The work is to be completed by March 31. However, the protests erupted on Sunday, with even the former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Justice S.S. Sodhi, former Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, senior advocate ML Sarin, environmentalist Paveela Bali, among others, joining in and terming the move “insensitive” and “damaging to city’s heritage”, which the administration claims is being undertaken with all the necessary approvals.

In January, the Supreme Court had stayed the high court’s November 29 order directing construction of a verandah outside the chief justice’s court on its premises. This order was also passed in these proceedings.