SC'S VARYING STAND

QUESTIONS are bound to be raised about the manner in which Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's Lucknow jail demolition proposal has passed the Supreme Court's muster. Last Friday, the SC passed on ex parte order in the government's favour after the petitioner had failed to appear during two consecutive court hearings. However, as the M AIL T ODAY has revealed, the court's registry did not give him the correct information about the date of hearing — for which he has documentary proof.

 

That this needs to be probed is evident in the backdrop of the Supreme Court's conflicting stances regarding Mayawati's grandiose scheme for construction of memorials for Dalit icons, including herself.

 

In May 2008, the Supreme Court had lifted the stay imposed by the Allahabad High Court on demolition of structures for the Lucknow projects. However, a different bench imposed it afresh in February 2009.

 

While this bench took objection to the public money being squandered on the projects, stopping construction work earlier this year, a forest bench headed by the Chief Justice of India refused to stay work at the Noida memorial — going against the recommendations of the apex court's empowered committee.

 

Then the same bench went on to halt the Noida project last month. This came at a time when work on the project was nearly complete and hundreds of crores of taxpayers' money had been spent, depriving the order of any relevance.