Joshimath crisis: Delhi HC withdraws PIL seeking creation of committees

Delhi High Court on Tuesday allowed withdrawing public interest litigation (PIL) that was seeking direction for the creation of a committee and directed representatives of all relevant ministries to look into this immediately for the affected areas of Joshimath, Uttarakhand, who work for the rehabilitation of people. The bench of Justice Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad allowed withdrawing PIL filed by lawyer Rohit Dandriyal after the State of Uttarakhand pointed out that the SC had on another occasion directed similar PIL Petitioner to approach the Uttarakhand HC since the same issue was pending before a Division Bench at Nainital.

Uttrakhand’s lawyer earlier submitted that both centre and State are seized of the matter. In order to aid the crisis NDRF and SDRF have been deployed along with that committees have been formed to look into rehabilitation and mitigation efforts.

The petitioner Rohit Dandriyal, a practising lawyer earlier stated that the construction activity done in the town of Joshimath in past years worked as a catalyst in the present scenario. By doing these activities, respondents violated the fundament right of the residents.

The plea further stated that at present the respondent has to act as a welfare state to extend modern amenable living facilities to the citizens. It is also important for the union of India to take cognizance of the plight of the people of Garhwal region of Uttarakhand and take efforts to provide the citizens with basic facilities essential to lead a dignified and respectable life.
Life in the hill town of Joshimath in Uttarakhand has been disrupted as people are losing their houses to the large cracks, they have also took to streets to demand action from the government.