NEW DELHI: In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court on Thursday emphasised the need to maintain public parks as green spaces, instructing the city’s civic authorities to ensure that a night shelter currently operating in Urdu Park near Jama Masjid is relocated.
The bench, led by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and including Justice Mini Pushkarna, stressed that using a public park for a night shelter should be a temporary measure to avoid losing valuable green areas. The court directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to notify the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), the current occupant of the space, to find alternative accommodation and vacate the park by March.
This decision came during a hearing on a petition by Mohd Arslan, which highlighted encroachments in public parks around Jama Masjid in old Delhi. The court had previously expressed concern over MCD’s failure to regain possession of two nearby public parks, North Park and South Park, emphasizing the importance of open spaces in the context of escalating pollution and the unacceptable nature of denying public access to these areas. The MCD counsel reported that they had since taken possession of these parks, opening them to the public during limited hours.
The court’s decision underscores the balance needed between providing emergency shelter and preserving public green spaces, especially in urban environments grappling with pollution. The court had earlier said that open spaces and green cover provide the much needed breathing zones for people when they are grappling with the hazardous scenario of ever increasing pollution, and the move to lock the gates of a public park and denying access to the public is ‘totally unacceptable’. The court listed the matter for further hearing on April 10.