HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL Writ Petition No. 93 of 2010 (PIL) Girish Chandra Joshi. ……..Petitioner Versus State of Uttarakhand and another. …….Respondent Mr. Sanjay Bhatt & Mr. Lalit Sharma, Advocates for the petitioner. Mr. Vinay Kumar, Standing Counsel for the State/respondents. Dated: January 5, 2011 Coram: Hon’ble Barin Ghosh, C.J. Hon’ble V.K. Bist, J. Barin Ghosh,C.J. (Oral) The Government has sanctioned construction of a road from Dhapti to Jhakara village. While granting administrative sanction, the Government proceeded on the basis that the length of this road would be 3 Kms. In the present Public Interest Litigation, it is being contended that the Chief Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, Kapkot, who is in-charge of construction of the said road, for his personal interest, while taking the said road to village Jhakara is seeking to deny a large number of weaker section of people, belonging to Scheduled Caste, accessibility of the said road. It has also been contended that the alignment, decided by the said Executive Engineer, goes through Forest, requiring removal of large number of trees. It has been stated that a large number of trees, belonging to the Forest, have already been cut down. It appears that the villagers have already raised their voice against such action, on the part of the said Executive Engineer. The matter was noticed by the Chief Development Officer, Bageshwar, who submitted a report to the District 2 Magistrate, Bageshwar. According to the petitioner, if the alignment of the road is made, as suggested by handing over a map to the Court in course of hearing, the road would not disturb the Forest and the same would benefit people of Jhakara village in a much better way and Scheduled Caste community people residing at Jhakara would also be benefited. It is being contended that the alignment of the road, prepared by the said Executive Engineer, takes the road from outside the village to a Temple situate in the village and, thereby avoids accessibility of the people of the village belonging to Scheduled Caste community. 2. We think, that this aspect of the matter is required to be looked at by an Appropriate Authority. It must be kept in mind that when Government has sanctioned construction of a road connecting village Jhakara with Dhapti, it must be kept in mind that the Government has sanctioned construction of the road for the benefit of the people of Jhakara and, accordingly, while making alignment of the road, the one and the only thing that is to be kept in mind, is the maximum benefit to be made available to the residents of Jhakara. At the same time, it must be kept in mind that natural resources of the area are not disturbed or with minimum disturbance, the purpose of making the road, useful to each member of the village, is achieved. 3. We, accordingly, direct that no further action be taken to construct the road. The Chief Engineer, Public Works Department is directed to visit the area and ascertain whether the alignment of the road, as prepared by the said Executive Engineer, meets the aforementioned 3 requirements. In the event, he is of the view that the alignment should have been made in a different manner, he should direct construction of the road on the basis of such alignment. The Chief Engineer is directed to give prior notice of his visit to the area in question to the petitioner. Petitioner is permitted to make his representation and to hand over appropriate maps and other documents to the Chief Engineer, including photographs of felled trees, if any, for the purpose of helping the Chief Engineer, to come to the correct conclusion. Only, after the Chief Engineer is satisfied that the present alignment is the best, he will permit further construction of the road to be made. In the event, he is of the opinion that the alignment must be altered, he shall alter the same and direct construction of the road on the basis of the altered alignment. 4. Since the sanction for construction of the road has been granted under the Special Component Plan, the same signifies that the sanction has been accorded for the purpose of benefiting Scheduled Caste community of the village. That being the situation, in the matter of settling alignment of the road in question, it was required to be kept in mind and would also be required to be kept in mind that the largest benefit of the road reaches to the members of the Scheduled Caste community residing in the village. The matter shall be dealt with in that prospective. This disposes of the writ petition. (V.K. Bist, J.) (Barin Ghosh, C.J.) 05.01.2011 NCM: