Expressing concern over the destructive power of the recent series of earthquakes, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Union government to submit an action plan for ensuring that the buildings in the Capital survive the impact of a quake.
Three weeks
A Division Bench, hearing a public interest litigation on the subject, said a majority of buildings in Delhi were structurally unsafe and gave three weeks’ time to the Centre to file an affidavit with an action plan in the event an earthquake of the intensity of the recent one in Afghanistan hits the Capital.
The Bench, comprising Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, posted the matter for further hearing on December 2, while expressing hope that ‘no disaster takes place’ before that date.
Nature's call
“We are acceding to the counsel’s request for more time for filing the affidavit, but we don’t know if the nature will accede to it,” said the court.
The PIL was moved by a lawyer, Arpit Bhargava, questioning how safe are buildings in the Capital if an earthquake of high intensity hits the city.
The Bench said the action taken so far by the Centre and various government and civic agencies to prevent damage by an earthquake was unsatisfactory.
It asked the authorities concerned to hold consultations among themselves to come up with a proposal to deal with the issue.
The court also noted that the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second Act protected the buildings constructed till June 2014 from any punitive action and asked the Centre if it was considering withdrawing the exemption given to unauthorised structures.
