The road in front of the Chief Minister’s residence was closed in the 1980s, when Punjab was hit by terrorism.
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court on Friday put on hold the Punjab and Haryana High Court’ s direction to reopen a 500-meter stretch of a road in front of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence in Chandigarh for the public.
The road connects Sukhna Lake to Nayagaon.
Staying the High Court order, a bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta issued notice on Punjab government ‘s plea challenging the directions issued by the High Court on the o0pening of the road to public, observing “Nobody wants anything untoward to happen”.
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The road in front of the Chief Minister’s residence was closed in the 1980s, when Punjab was hit by terrorism.
The court in its order said, “Issue notice. Direction on opening the road on trial basis is stayed till further orders, but the proceedings before the High Court can continue.”
The Advocate General of Punjab told the bench that in “recent years there is resurgence of terrorism” in the State and grenades were thrown at the State police’s intelligence building. Pointing to the killing of singer Sidhu Moose Wala, the Advocate General said that he was killed right after his security was withdrawn.
The Punjab government and the administration of the Union Territory of Chandigarh approached the top court against the High Court order directing the opening of the road in front of Chief Minister’s residence in Sector 2 for the public from May 1 on an experimental basis.
Appearing for the Chandigarh administration, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that the move could have grave implications on someone’s life. “This is playing with somebody’s life,” he said.
The High Court on April 27, had ordered the Chandigarh administration to formulate a plan to ease the traffic congestion by opening the road in front of the Chief Minister’s residence on an experimental basis from May 1.
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