Char Dham: Supreme Court permits MoD for widening 3 highways, to observe by AK Sikri committee

Char Dham: Supreme Court permits MoD for widening 3 highways, to observe by AK Sikri committee

Headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice AK Sikri, the Supreme Court set up an oversight committee to supervise the project, report to the Court directly

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Ministry of Defense (MoD) to extend the three strategic highways, part of the Char Dham project in compliance with the environmental references concerns made by the High Powered Committee (HPC) [Citizens for Green Doon v. Union of India].

A three-judge Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath accepted the disagreement of the MoD on road widening in view of security concerns with the border country.

"We find there are no malafides in application filed by MoD. MoD is authorized to design operational requirement of armed forces. Bonafides of MoD is apparent from security concerns raised in security committee meeting," the Court said.

"This court in exercise of judicial review cannot second guess the requirements of army," the Bench added.

The Court cannot question the policy choice of the government, the judgment further said.

"We allow the application by Defence Ministry for double lane highways for three strategic highways," the Court ordered.

However, the Court also did not keep aside the environmental concerns raised by the petitioner -NGO, Citizens for Green Doon while also noting the conclusion by the HPC - best practices were not accepted by the government in some places during the construction.

"HPC notes that best practices were not adopted in some places. HPC has also noted harm committed in some areas and has suggested remedies for the same and has suggested future action to reduce the impact," the Court said.

Environmental influence of these roads cannot be any less important here, the Bench made it clear.

"High powered committee recommendations on environmental concerns have to be followed," the judgment emphasized.

Headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice AK Sikri, it, therefore, set up an oversight committee to supervise the project with respect to the three highways and report to the Court directly on the same.

"The oversight committee shall ensure that recommendations of HPC are implemented and not conduct a fresh analysis. If any breach takes place, the chairman of the committee can approach this court," the Court directed.

Besides, the three highways, the HPC will continue to oversee the work, the Court said.