The Allahabad High Court has taken a serious note of the failure of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest of Uttar Pradesh and the Chairman of the Taj Trapezium Zone Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, Agra, to file their counter affidavits on a PIL despite repeated orders to the effect and asked the officials to appear in person on the next date of hearing.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Yashwant Varma passed the order on February 23 and warned that it would issue show cause contempt notices if the officials failed to submit their replies on the next date of hearing on March 18.
The order was passed in the course of hearing on the PIL filed by one Dr Devashish Bhattacharya who had challenged the proposed construction of a "Leather Park" at Agra, close to the Soor Sarovar Bird Sanctuary, an eco-sensitive zone. The Court noted with dismay that it had directed the respondents to file their replies on January 4 and then again granted time till February 23, vide a subsequent order dated January 27 wherein "we had placed them on notice that if no reply is filed, the court would be constrained to take recourse to corrective proceedings".
"Despite both the previous orders, no replies have been", the court observed, adding that "in these circumstances, the Court is left with no other option but to require the personal presence before this court" and that if they "do not file their replies by the next date for hearing, the Court would be constrained to invoke its jurisdiction under the Contempt of Courts Act".
