SC dismisses Bengal plea against HC order on metro work, raps state for stalling project

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the West Bengal government’s plea challenging a Calcutta High Court direction for blocking traffic on two consecutive weekend nights to enable construction of a 366-metre stretch of the city metro’s Orange Line at Chingrighata, making it clear that development work cannot be halted on the grounds of festivals or upcoming elections.

A Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi found no infirmity in the High Court’s order and observed that the State’s stand reflected an obstinate attitude aimed at delaying and stalling the project. The Court noted that citing the festival season and upcoming elections as reasons to avoid temporary traffic restrictions was unjustified and showed reluctance to carry forward an important public transport project.

Advertisement

The Bench underlined that a democratically elected government is duty-bound to facilitate such development work rather than impede it, and not prioritise festivals over development activities. Justice Bagchi observed that the Court does not expect a democratically elected government to approach it seeking to ignore such development work.

Telling the State government that it was not a question of willingness but of duty, the Bench observed that the State appeared to be treating festivals as more important than development and questioned whether such priorities were justified when a major transport project was involved.

In the submission regarding the upcoming elections, the Court observed that the project had commenced well before the Model Code of Conduct came into force and could not be stalled on that basis. It emphasised that such grounds cannot be used as a pretext to delay essential public works.

The Court further remarked that the High Court had taken a lenient view in the matter, adding that the situation could have warranted action against the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police for failing to ensure compliance.

In strong remarks, the Court said the State’s conduct reflected a dereliction of constitutional duty and an attempt to politicise a purely developmental issue that was beneficial to the public.

Refusing to permit withdrawal of the plea as sought by the State government, the Chief Justice Surya Kant said, “This shows complete dereliction of your constitutional duty. This is just an attempt to politicise an issue where there is no such issue.”.”