Supreme Court to hear PIL on January 16

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reluctantly agreed to hear a PIL filed by Jyotishpeeth Shankaracharya Swami Abhimuktwshwaranand Saraswati on the subsidence disaster in Joshimath, an important town near the famous Hindu pilgrim destination Badrinath.
Listing the PIL for hearing on January 16 while declining repeated requests for taking it up this week, a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha said every important issue in the country need not be filed in the Supreme Court. “Authorities are working on the ground,” it said.
The petitioner complained of sufferance by residents in the areas affected by subsidence, alleging total inaction on the ground and sought a direction to the Union government to deploy National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) at Joshimath. The NDRF, in fact, has already been working in Joshimath after reports of subsidence were published in newspapers. The petitioner argued that construction work for the Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project tunnel should not resume till a SC-constituted high-level committee examined the project threadbare.