Punjab and Haryana High Court orders Supreme Court's stay on removal of protesters from Chandigarh-Mohali Road

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had directed the authorities to remove the protesters from the Chandigarh-Mohali road. A bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sandeep Mehta issued notice on the Punjab government’s plea and sought response from an NGO, the central government and the Chandigarh administration, among others.

On behalf of the Central Government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said during the hearing that he is supporting the stand of the Punjab Government. He said that federalism is always protected except corruption. During Corona, all the states and the Center worked together. Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh said that the High Court order should be stayed.

In its order passed on April 9 on several PILs, the High Court had said that despite giving repeated opportunities, neither the Punjab government nor the Chandigarh administration could provide any solution to the commuters of Mohali and Chandigarh due to the blocking of roads by some people. Commuters and people of Tricity are facing problems.

On October 9 last year, the High Court had taken cognizance of the fact that the Center had also been made a party in this case. The thing to note is that Punjab DGP was also summoned in this matter about a year ago. The High Court had said that it hoped that the Chandigarh administration of Punjab would wake up from its slumber and consider the observations of the Supreme Court in various decisions related to street protests.