‘Legislature not always supreme’: Top court raps Haryana govt

NEWDELHI: Two days after the Haryana assembly cleared a bill that would open up the Aravallis in Gurgram and Faridabad to real estate development, mining and quarrying, the Supreme Court on Friday administered a sharp rebuke to the state government and stopped it from taking any action under the proposed new law.

A bench of justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta minced no words in expressing its displeasure and said it was upset with at the Haryana assembly’s efforts to overturn a verdict by the top court that banned such activities in the Aravallis. The act was sheer contempt, the court said, warning that it could initiate contempt proceedings against the state.

“The act of Haryana is not only obnoxious but also contemptuous. Legislature is not supreme. At times, the court has to prevail,” Mishra said when the new law was brought to the bench notice.

The Haryana assembly on Wednesday passed an amendment to the Punjab Land Preservation Ac t (PLPA), 1900,opening thousands of acres of land under the Aravallis and the Shivalik range to real estate development, mining and quarrying. The Aravallis in south Haryana also act as a barrier against dust intrusion from Rajasthan and a large groundwater recharge zone for the entire National Capital Region centred on Delhi.

Te amendment was passed amid uproar in the House, with opposition Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal legislators demanding that the bill be sent to an assembly committee for re-examination. Members of the opposition said the new law would only help real estate developers and mining companies.

The bench of justices Mishra and Gupta was on Friday hearing a matter pertaining to the demolition of houses in Faridabad’s Kant Enclave, located in the Aravallis. The Supreme Court had in September ruled that houses in the fragile zone had come up in violation of the PLPA and ordered their demolition. It relied on an earlier top court ruling that disallowed any construction activity in the Aravallis.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar and advocate ADN Rao, assisting the bench as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the case, referred to media reports on the amendment passed by the assembly. This enraged the bench, which turned to the state government lawyer, who attempted to justify the amendment. “You please stop it. We do not want to hear you. We want to say a lot of things, but cannot,” justice Mishra said.

He then told the counsel that the court was not stopping the promulgation of the law. “But no action should be taken under the amended Act. It is really shocking

that you are destroying the forest. This is not permissible,” the judge said.

The judge made it clear that the law was supreme in the counThey try. “This is not the way and Supreme Court will not tolerate this. You cannot treat court orders as a joke,” the judge said.