HC no to PIL that’s Games salvage plea

At a time when most of the construction activities due to the Commonwealth Games are courting controversy, the organisers can heave a sigh of relief.

The Delhi high court on Wednesday refused to hear a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking direction to the Centre to avail assistance from technocrats for timely completion of Commonwealth Games projects.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justice Manmohan dismissed the PIL filed by lawyer Amitabha Sen seeking empanelment of a body of technocrats.‘‘The court cannot interfere in the construction activities related to the Commonwealth Games... It is not in our domain and we decline to interfere in the matter,’’ the bench said.According to Sen, the PIL sought to place before the court various suggestions on how the construction work could be completed in time. He advised to include Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chairman E Sreedharan, the brain behind the engineering marvel Konkan Rail, in the body.

‘‘There are enough Sreedharans in the country. With the games beginning in just 59 days, the country’s prestige is at stake and many projects are far from completion,’’ the petition argued, seeking high court’s intervention to form a panel of technocrats and monitor its work.