SC pulls up Centre for silence on parking hazards on highways

The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Centre and imposed on it a cost of Rs 25,000 for failing to respond to a petition that said parking along the highways was a major source of fatal accidents.

Pointing out that courts are being criticised for not doing their work, a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud took the Centre to task for not filing its response in the last three years on a petition filed in 2013 by an NGO called Save Life Foundation.

It was a year ago that the Centre had sought two months' time to file its reply and even after one year the situation was the same, the bench said when government counsel sought some more time to file the response.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who was present in the court room in connection with some other case, intervened and assured the court that the government's response would be filed in a week's time.

The court fixed the next hearing after three weeks.