SC allows Centre’s plea for double-lane roads on Char Dham highway project

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a plea by the Union government to construct the 10-meter wide road Char Dham road project in view of recent security challenges at Indo-China border.

A bench presided over Justice D Y Chandrachud said that it is essential to strike a balance between need to widen strategic roads important for national security, and the principle for sustainable development, which is crucial to protect the environment.

The bench said this court can't second-guess the infrastructural needs of armed forces.

The top court also constituted an oversight committee, led by former Supreme Court judge Justice A K Sikri, to ensure all remedial measures are taken in the interest of the environment and the recommendations of the high-power committee are implemented in the project.

The court noted that there is no malafide in the application filed by the Ministry of Defence to widen the roads for the operational requirement of the armed forces.

The bench said the highways, which are strategic roads for armed forces, cannot be compared to any other hilly or mountainous roads.

The court passed its judgement on a plea filed by an NGO 'Citizens for Green Doon', challenging the widening of the road in the project.

The petitioner had questioned the Stage -I forest and wildlife clearance granted for improvement and expansion of roads by felling trees.

The top court had in September 2020 ordered the government to keep the width of the Char Dham road at 5.5 meters in compliance with the central government's own 2018 notification for hilly and mountainous terrains.

The Char Dham highway is a 900-kilometre road project that promises to offer all-weather connectivity to four Hindu pilgrimage centres --- Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamnotri ----- in Uttarakhand.

During the hearing, the court had noted that army cannot be airlifted to high altitude border areas, while huge infrastructure was being built on the other side of the border.

It had also wondered whether constitutional courts should interfere in the development of strategic infrastructure as per requirement of the Armed forces for defence and security of the nation, on the ground of environmental concerns.

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