SC stays Uttarakhand HC's direction to identify land for shifting HC premises outside Nainital

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed an order passed by the Uttarakhand High Court directing the Chief Secretary of the state to identify the "best suitable land" for shifting the high court premises outside Nainital.

Issuing a notice on a plea filed by the high court bar association, a bench presided over by Justice P.S. Narasimha sought the response of the state government and others in the matter.

In the meantime, the impugned decision of the high court will not be given effect, ordered the bench, also comprising Justice Sanjoy Karol.

The matter will be taken up for further hearing post the summer vacations.

In its order, the Uttarakhand High Court had asked the Chief Secretary to complete the entire exercise of locating the land within a month and submit her report to the court by June 7.

The high court noted that Nainital is a well-known tourist destination where traffic congestion is one of the biggest problems facing the city.

“There is no private nursing home in Nainital and in emergency situations, there is no medical facility... This court also gets information that one of the well practising lawyers of this court, Paresh Tripathi, died due to lack of medical facilities,” it said.

In September 2022, the Full Court resolved to shift the high court from Nainital. After the passing of the resolution, land was identified at Golapur in Haldwani for shifting the high court.

A bench of Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal said, “Land identified at Golapur in Haldwani, measuring about 26 hectares, is surrounded by dense forest, which is 75 per cent of the land earmarked for the establishment of the high court. So this court does not want to uproot any of the trees to make a new high court.”

“We also want that the high court should be established at a new location so that there will be no need to shift it again in the next 50 years,” it added.