Above: Delhi High Court/Photo: Anil Shakya

The Delhi High Court on Thursday (December 21) came down hard on respondent Jitender Kumar Lalwani – against whom charges have been brought of illegal encroachment and unauthorised construction on public land in Burari, Delhi – for not filing any status report on what he has done so far.

The bench, comprising of the Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, got so infuriated on the non-filing of status report that it even cautioned Lalwani that it would direct the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

During the course of the proceedings, the bench observed that even after repeated directions to the respondent, none of the status report was filed.

The petitioner submitted to the bench that since the area comes under the jurisdiction of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), it was appropriate to implead NDMC as respondent in the case.

The bench issued notice to the respondent to reply within two weeks. The bench further ordered: “Status report shall be filed within six weeks. In the application for stay notice we direct respondents to take steps by inspecting the land and remove the encroachments.”

The bench posted the matter for next hearing to April 24, 2018.

—India Legal Bureau