HC stays road panel order by single-judge bench

NEW DELHI: Acting suo motu, Delhi High Court has stayed the decision of one of its judges to set up a panel comprising a retired HC judge to monitor maintenance of city roads.
A division bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra recently stayed the single-judge order and sought a response from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). On its part, MCD told the bench it was preparing its appeal against the order by Justice Kailash Gambhir where he had rapped the civic agency for its failure to keep the capital's roads in good condition.
While hearing the bail plea of a corrupt contractor employed by MCD, Justice Gambhir had considerably broadened the scope of the court's intervention, shocked by the utter disrepair of the capital's roads and set up the committee to monitor the upkeep of the roads. It was to be headed by Justice Rekha Sharma, who retired from the high court earlier this year and ensure construction of durable roads of international standard. Retired additional Sessions Judge Dinesh Dayal was appointed its registrar. The court had directed the officials of various civic bodies like MCD, the New Delhi Municipal Council, Public Works Department and the Delhi Jal Board to cooperate with the panel.
The panel, which was to begin work from November, was initially given a tenure of six months. HC had fixed Rs 50,000 as honorarium per sitting for the committee head and Rs 25,000 for the registrar. MCD was supposed to foot the bills and provide all infrastructure for the functioning of the committee.
"With a view to putting a coordinated and unified effort, this court feels it appropriate to appoint Justice Rekha Sharma as one-person committee to undertake the task of bringing all these authorities together to plan out a time-bound programme for the construction of high-quality roads of international standards having longer life along with proper maintenance and instant repair of the roads," the court had observed.
Justice Gambhir had asked the committee to fix liability of officials responsible for awarding contracts and making inspections. "Officers from junior to high level... are either not taking their job seriously or some of these officers are hand in glove with the contractors in laying or relaying substandard roads," the court had said.