Urgency over, High Court fixes BBMB case hearing in July

Immediate urgency over, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday deferred the hearing in the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) case to July after the summer break. As the matter came up before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sumeet Goel, Punjab submitted that any restriction on access to the BBMB was imposed by the crowd, not the authorities.

Senior advocate Gurminder Singh submitted on behalf of the State: “As regards the police presence, it was on their own asking… and the restriction, if any, was by the crowd which had gathered at the spot. Because of the issue being sensitive, the court is aware a large protest has taken place on the site.”

The submission came barely a month after the BBMB Chairman told the Bench that he had been locked out of the installation by the public — a claim the Bench had earlier termed “unbelievable.” The court had also noted that a prima facie case of contempt was made out for non-compliance with its directions restraining interference with BBMB’s functioning.

BBMB’s counsel and senior advocate Rajesh Garg, meanwhile, raised concerns submitting that delaying the matter until after the summer vacation could lead to further problems. “If this matter goes up after vacation, we may face the same problem during the June period also. So long as the police force is there, under the garb of the stand they are now taking that we are not preventing anybody from going there, the situation is status quo. We are in a day-to-day predicament.”

On the reported deployment of central forces, Garg said it could take one-and-a-half to two months, as infrastructure was required to be created and funds deposited. Additional Solicitor-General Satya Pal Jain confirmed the Centre’s decision to deploy CISF personnel, subject to BBMB depositing Rs 8 crore.

The case will now be heard on July 8. The matter had reached the High Court during proceedings in an application filed by a gram panchayat, represented by advocates R. Kartikeya and Ridhi Bansal.