NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a plea for an intervention into Joshimath subsidence issue and declare the crisis as a national disaster.
The Uttarakhand High Court, which was already seized of the matter, can suitably redress the grievances including of rehabilitation of the affected people, a bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said.
As a counsel submitted that people were dying and in dire need of rehabilitation, the bench, also comprising Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala said, “Please do not use the proceedings for sound bites for the social media.”
The bench asked petitioner Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati to move the Uttarakhand High Court with a fresh writ petition or an intervention application.
"Once we start hearing this, we will deprive the High Court an opportunity to hear the case,” the bench said.
The Uttarakhand government led by Deputy Advocate General Jatinder Kumar Sethi contended that apart from this another petition has been filed in Delhi High Court and about this, all of his prayers have been acted upon by the central and the state government.
The counsel for the petitioner, however, said that subsidence has occurred due to large-scale industrialisation and sought immediate financial assistance and compensation to the affected people.
Observing that it could not deprive the High Court from hearing the matter, the top court asked the petitioner to either file a fresh plea or intervene in the proceedings there.
“We request the High Court to consider the petition filed with reasonable dispatch," the court said.
The plea contended that no development is needed at the cost of human life and their ecosystem and if any such thing is to happen, then it is the duty of the state government and Union government to stop the same immediately. The plea also sought a direction to the National Disaster Management Authority to actively support Joshimath residents.
The plea said entire mess of environmental, ecological and geological disturbances occurred due to large-scale manly intervention in the form of industrialisation, urbanisation and destruction of natural resources by the Union and State governments.
