April 11, 2007 Supreme
Court Seeks
Implementation of Sealing Order
New Delhi
Expressing its anguish over vacillation by police and municipal
authorities in sealing illegal shops in the capital, the Supreme
Court Wednesday sought strict compliance of its order and admonished
the chiefs of two departments for making contradictory claims over
deployment of security personnel for sealing.
After going through the affidavits of Delhi Police Commissioner K.K.
Paul and municipal body chief A.K Nigam, who appeared in the court
in response to summons, a bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat
said: "We have perused the two affidavits. To say the least, they
are confusing and conflicting in some aspects, besides being
irreconcilable."
"We are anguished and at pains to know that our orders are not being
implemented in letter and spirit. We hope that in future the Delhi
Police and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will implement
the orders without giving any room for grievance from any quarter,"
said the bench, which also had judges C.K Thakkar and L.S. Panta.
The bench directed the MCD and police chief to coordinate properly
in enforcing the closure of illegal commercial properties operating
out of residential premises, unprotected by Delhi Master Plan 2021.
The bench had sought the personal appearance of Paul and Nigam to
clarify why sealing operations could not be undertaken on April 3, 4
and 9.
Paul, in his affidavit, had told the court he was unable to provide
security personnel to assist the sealing operations on April 3 and
4, as he had to deploy several of them for the security of foreign
dignitaries visiting New Delhi for the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit.
The police chief also cited the April 5 municipal elections as yet
another reason for his failure to spare police force on the two days
for carrying out the sealing.
He, however, asserted that the MCD had been provided with police
personnel on April 9 when six commercial establishments, including
two properties in north district and four schools in east district,
were sealed.
MCD Commissioner A.K. Nigam, however, contradicted Paul's claim
saying no police was provided on all the three dates.
Nigam, in his affidavit said the six properties, which the police
commissioner says was sealed on April 9, had been sealed under the
Delhi High Court order and not as per the order of the apex court.
The court found the claims of Paul and Nigam as "conflicting" and
termed their differences as "really unfortunate".
It hoped that the two departments would achieve proper coordination
in future to carry out the court's orders and adjourned the matter
till May 7.
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