Dissolve NCR planning board if useless, Delhi HC tells government

If the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) was unable to fulfil its functions and purpose, the central government should dissolve it and take over its functions to ensure compliance of the Regional Plan, the Delhi High Court has said.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw asked the central government to ensure that the purpose for which the NCRPB was created is fulfilled in letter and spirit by ensuring the developments in the respective sub-regions of the NCR are in accordance with the Regional Plan.

The NCRPB was created by an act of parliament in 1985 to ensure planned development in Delhi and its periphery. While law does not empower NCRPB to take coercive steps to ensure compliance of the regional plan, it can withhold financial assistance to the concerned participating State.

The high court in a recent judgment directed the NCRPB "to monitor and be vigilant of the developments at site in the NCR and also in preparation of the sub-regional plans and the Master Plans of the towns falling in the NCR.

"Upon finding any violations, the NCRPB should take immediate action under section 29(1) of the NCRPB Act," the bench said.

"The states should not forget that they shall also be victims of the havoc resulting from violations of the regional plan and anarchy in development," it remarked.

"The board should regularly from time to time, keep the central government informed of the violations if any of the regional plan. On finding violation, the board should take action," the bench said.

The high court also directed the central government to also stay abreast of the functions of the NCRPB in turn. The verdict came on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), filed by Raghuraj Singh, seeking direction to the state governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi - to stop acting in contravention of the regional plan drawn up by the NCRPB.