Status quo till we decide, says SC on Forest Hill

The Supreme Court has intervened in the case that has provoked the first ever strike by members of the higher judiciary and the consequent d...

The Supreme Court has intervened in the case that has provoked the first ever strike by members of the higher judiciary and the consequent decision to transfer the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and its two senior-most judges.

The apex court yesterday stayed the demolition of the controversial Forest Hill Golf and Country Club near Chandigarh but directed that no activity, commercial or otherwise, would meanwhile be allowed on its premises.

Making it clear that no part of the club can function in the interim period, a bench headed by Justice Y K Sabharwal said that even its members cannot use the golf course and other facilities that were built on a forest land.

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Passing a status quo order, the Supreme Court said that the premises be maintained as on October 12, when a bench headed by the High Court Chief Justice, B K Roy, had ordered the entire club to be demolished within three months.

While issuing notices to the Centre and Punjab government on an appeal filed by the club management, the apex court stayed the demolition of the club as that would have otherwise made the case infructuous.

There is clearly no stay on the CBI investigation ordered by the High Court into the construction of the club in violation of the Forest Act and other laws allegedly in collusion with the various dignitaries who had been given free membership.

The High Court judges had gone on strike on April 19 to protest the in-house notices served on two of them by Chief Justice Roy to explain why they had accepted free membership in the scam-tainted club.

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The Centre’s counsel, A D N Rao, asserted in the apex court that the club had been built even after the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had specifically denied permission to it to divert the forest land for commercial purposes.

The advocate general of Punjab, Har Bhagwan Singh, added that the club had also violated the Punjab Land Preservation Act.

The club was represented by senior advocates Shanti Bhushan and Soli Sorabjee, who pleaded in vain for a stay on the operation of the entire order of the High Court.