New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant today made strong remarks regarding Chandigarh’s famous lake and asked, “How much more will you dry up Sukhna Lake?” CJI Surya Kant warned the government against repeating past mistakes and said that Sukhna Lake has already been damaged due to the collusion of officials and the builder mafia. He emphasized the need for immediate action.
“How much more will you dry up Sukhna Lake?”: Chief Justice Surya Kant, a native of Petwar village in Hisar, Haryana, made strong remarks regarding the drying up of Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh. Justice Surya Kant expressed serious concern over the drying up of Chandigarh’s famous lake due to the collusion of the builder mafia and bureaucrats. He questioned, “How much more will you dry up Sukhna Lake?” Illegal construction through collusion: The bench of CJI and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was hearing interim applications filed in a pending 1995 PIL titled ‘In Re: TN Godavarman Thirumulpad’. It was during this hearing that the CJI made these remarks about Sukhna Lake. The CJI said that “illegal constructions are taking place due to the collusion and connivance of bureaucrats, who are supported by political figures in Punjab, which is completely ruining the lake. All the builder mafia are operating there.” Earlier, the apex court had expressed surprise that all cases related to forests and lakes were coming to the Supreme Court, bypassing the High Courts, and that too in the form of interim applications in a pending 1995 public interest litigation.
