Prayagraj, March 11 The Allahabad High Court has dismissed contempt petitions in a case concerning the construction of a four-lane elevated corridor passing through Varanasi's Shivpur, allowing the project to proceed.
The order was passed by Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal, after hearing an application filed by Narayan and others, alleging that the construction of the corridor violated an interim order passed by the same court in 2013.
Narayan and others had approached the HC, stating that the high court, while hearing a petition filed by them, had issued an interim order restraining any construction on the land, which is a pond area.
When the matter was taken up now, Bipin Bihari Pandey, the chief standing counsel, said that the applicants themselves had erected constructions, violating the 2013 interim order.
He specifically pointed out that the order had stipulated that no construction should be made on the disputed land.
He further informed the Court that an elevated corridor is being built, and out of the 25 pillars that need to be constructed, 12 have already been erected.
According to him, the land on which the elevated corridor is being built is government land, over which the applicants have encroached.
"...no case for contempt can be made out, as it is clear that constructions have been made after 2013, which was prohibited by the writ court," the Court observed, dismissing the contempt petition.
According to the case, the petitioners had approached the high court in 2013, challenging an order passed in 1996 by a sub-divisional officer, who had removed the names of the petitioners from the revenue records.