The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed proposed changes to the Delhi Master Plan 2021, PTI reported. The Master Plan 2021 is a blueprint for the planning, expansion and development of Delhi.

The Delhi Development Authority has proposed changes to the plan that would protect traders from a Supreme Court-monitored sealing drive.

The top court pulled up the Delhi government, the Delhi Development Authority and the Municipal Corporations of Delhi for not filing the affidavits it had asked for on whether they did an environment impact assessment before proposing the changes to the Master Plan, PTI reported.

“This is contempt, and nothing short of contempt,” the bench of Justice MB Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta said. “This dadagiri has to stop.”

The proposed changes would not only increase the floor area ratio for commercial establishments, but also allow use of basements to run businesses and rationalisation of conversion charges, the Hindustan Times reported. Floor area ratio is the relationship between the usable floor area allowed for a building and the total area of the plot on which the building stands.

The court had earlier criticised the civic bodies of Delhi for keeping their “eyes closed” and “waiting for disaster to happen”, after they proposed the changes to the Master Plan. The top court said it appeared that the Delhi Development Authority was “succumbing to some pressure”. “What about the people who are staying in Delhi?” it asked.

The sealing drive

Acting on instructions from a Supreme Court-appointed committee, civic officials shut down shops and restaurants in south Delhi’s Defence Colony Market on December 22 for alleged unauthorised constructions.

The civic body has since taken action against shops in 20 markets, including Khan Market, Mehar Chand Market, Sundar Nagar, Hauz Khas, Rajendra Nagar, Chhatarpur and Vasant Kunj. The shops were sealed as they allegedly have not paid conversion charges, and for encroachment and illegal construction, among other things.