NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to entertain a public interest litigation seeking merger of Delhi’s neighbouring cities like Meerut, Faridabad and Gurugram with the national capital.
The petitioner said these cities are far away from their respective jurisdictional high courts and therefore should be made part of the national capital. Similarly, the petitioner also said a new high court should be established for Punjab in Jalandhar as the present high court in the union territory of Chandigarh was inconvenient to access for those residing in places like Amritsar.
A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan told the petitioner the reorganisation of the territories of states as well as establishment of high courts was not within the high court’s domain.
“Why have you come to the court ? We are not the Parliament. Parliament does not work under my order. We don’t reorganise the boundaries of states. We don’t decide which high court will function from where. That is not our domain,” the bench, also comprising Justice Manmeet PS Arora, said. The court observed the petition was filed in ignorance of Article 3 of the Constitution which deals with the procedure for formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing States.
The bench, explaining the law, said a bill to form or alter the boundaries of a State has to be introduced in Parliament on the recommendation of the President of India.
“Someone wants us to redraw the map. That’s the only thing that is left,” the court remarked.