Frustrating for a Judge to see his order not implemented: HC

Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed, the second senior-most judge of Delhi High Court who had passed an order on checking traffic congestion in the city, today expressed "frustration" over its non-compliance as he narrated his ordeal of getting caught in a snarl on his way to court.
"You can't imagine how frustrating it is for a High Court judge to pass an order regarding traffic congestion in Delhi and later see it not being complied with," Justice Ahmed said while narrating his ordeal during the hearing on an air pollution case.
The bench, which also comprised Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, directed the Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) to personally look into the compliance of the court's directions on regulating vehicular movement on roads and carriage way.

"I was coming to the court at around 10.30 AM and at the roundabout near the house of the Vice President of India, I saw people moving in the carriage way.
"I asked the traffic police personnel deployed there that why he was not challaning the people driving wrongly in carriage way. He said to me they are not supposed to challan before 11 am," Justice Ahmed said.
Justice B D Ahmed further asked the counsel for Delhi Police what kind of traffic management was this that a traffic violator is fined only when there was a free flow of traffic and not when it is very much needed.

"In the last hearing of the case, you filed an affidavit saying the people driving in carriage way wrongly will be challaned as well as booked under section 279 (driving dangerously) of IPC. You see on the ground, nothing happens," the bench observed.

It said there has to be some thinking in the traffic department about the management and regulation of traffic and intelligent personnel need to be deployed on the roads.
"Traffic congestion is nothing new for cities in India. Traffic of Bombay is regulated in a much better way. A person sitting in car on Delhi road is so frustrated that when he reaches his office, he may start a fight with his colleague," the bench observed.

(Reopens LGD27)
Counsel for central government informed the court that Delhi police had initially prepared a detailed project report for Safe City project worth Rs 1680 crore, which was later revised to around Rs 1704 crore.
The counsel said that project has huge financial implication and public resources needs to be used prudently.
He said Delhi police was unable to spend Rs 275.08 crore already allocated to it and only 33 per cent has been spent.
Earlier on February 4, the court had said that unlike the public perception, the pollution levels in the capital last year was not as bad as other years.

It had said the year 2015 was relatively a better year in terms of pollution index but it did not mean the situation was good.
Delhi traffic police in its report had said that it has identified 14 spots, congested junctions or corridors in Delhi, as extremely affected.
(Reopens LGD15)
Earlier, the high court had noted that stubble burning, which is not permissible under the law, was going on despite the orders of NGT and HC. "This practice has gone unabated and year after year and Delhi has been engulfed in haze, constituents of which are aerosols from stubble burning and dust".

It had said that effects of pollution were felt by every citizen, particularly the elderly and children who experienced difficulty in breathing, and it manifested itself in long term effect like "reduction in longevity".
Expressing hope that the law and court orders would be followed in letter and spirit, the bench had directed the four states to file status reports regarding action taken by them to ensure stubble burning practice is eliminated.
The court was hearing a PIL initiated by it on the issue of air pollution in the national capital and had asked the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab about their action plan to stop the practice of stubble burning, undertaken by farmers to clear the fields before sowing the next crop after Diwali.

Punjab government, represented by advocate Naginder Benipal, had said immediate action was required by Haryana as it was much closer to Delhi. Haryana government had said it has already started taking action in compliance with the orders of NGT.
Rajasthan government said its Chief Secretary has held meetings on how to deal with the issue and said the pollution control board of the state should also be made a party.
DPCC, represented by advocate Sanjeev Ralli, had said that directions were given by NGT to these states last year itself to stop stubble burning, so let them also show what they have done so far.

The bench, thereafter, had said that any action taken by the states can be seen from the air quality data collected by the 20 monitoring stations in Delhi run by DPCC, Central Pollution Control Board and Ministry of Earth Sciences.
It had directed all the three agencies "to ensure that data is recorded for entire month of October and November 2016 and a comparative chart be placed before us comparing current year data with previous year and also comparing with August and September months of 2016".