A bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, granted six months to the government to amend the MPD, but told it that if it fails to amend the MPD in the given time, the bus depot will have to be re-located.
"The petitions are disposed of by granting six months to respondents (Delhi Govt) to take steps to make changes in the Master Plan, if it is possible, by changing the land use and bringing it in conformity with the present use. In case, the Master Plan is amended in this manner, the natural consequence thereof would be that the bus depot would continue to operate from the given site.
"If attempt to amend the Master Plan fails, there would be no option but to re-locate the bus depot to some other place. In that event, it will be for the DTC to ask the DDA to allot alternate site and feasibility of site at Mayur Vihar can also be considered at that stage," the bench said.
The court accepted Delhi government's Standing Counsel Najmi Waziri's submission that government was planning to modify the MPD to convert the temporary bus depot into a permanent one.
"The stark reality is that as per MPD 2021, the land use of the site is river/ water body. Admittedly, any construction has to be in conformity with the Master Plan. May be for this reason, when the land was allotted to the DTC to take care of the need of Commonwealth games, it was for the purpose of 'temporary' parking, that too, in view of the security threat perceptions prevailing in the region," the court said. (More)