{"id":76326,"date":"2021-01-11T19:18:55","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T13:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=76326"},"modified":"2021-02-27T18:31:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T13:01:14","slug":"central-vista-judgment-issue-of-public-participation-in-public-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/central-vista-judgment-issue-of-public-participation-in-public-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Vista judgment: Issue of public participation in public projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Synopsis: <\/strong>The issue of public consultation in the project development process should not be underestimated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Introduction <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">In the recent judgment of the Supreme Court, Rajeev Suri v. Delhi Development Authority, Court granted its approval to the proposed redevelopment of the Central Vista in the national capital.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>What are the changes proposed?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">In 2009, the Central Vista was considered as a Grade-I heritage precinct after extensive public consultation, which meant that any development inside the area had to be \u201cregulated and controlled\u201d without damaging its impressive style.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">However, the Redevelopment plan includes taking down a number of post-Independence buildings, including the National Museum.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Read more:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/central-vista-project-what-are-the-benefits-and-issues-associated-to-it\/\">Issues with Central Vista Project<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/supreme-court-judgment-on-central-vista-redevelopment-project\/\">Central Vista Judgment<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Issues in the judgment on central Vista project<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Following were 2 issues in the Central Vista Judgment, as per <strong>Suhrith Parthasarathy<\/strong>, the advocate of Madras High Court;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Court refused to acknowledge<\/strong> the existence of a r<strong>ight to public participation<\/strong>, a right, which ought to be seen as fundamental in a democracy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Delhi Development Act, 1957<\/strong> mandated opportunity to the public to place their objections on the record. Although objections were invited from the public, a mere three-days\u2019 notice was given for the hearing on those complaints<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">However, majority judgment ruled that the <strong>law does not make personal hearings mandatory. <\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Issues:<\/strong> 2 issues are involved in this case:<\/span>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">In the past SC itself held that arbitrary state action violates fundamental rights under article 14 i.e. sufficient time should be accorded to the public if any big change is being introduced to imp. Acts like DDA.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">For Public to scrutinise the project, authentic technical information\u00a0on the project was available in the public domain.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Issues in general in the public projects<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Public participation and architectural services procurement\u00a0<\/strong>are 2 of several areas that are in urgent need of improvement;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>The issue of public Participation<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Horizontal accountability<\/strong> ensures check on government, by creating connected state organizations such as heritage committees and environmental regulators.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Vertical accountability requires citizen oversight. Citizens are asking for an improved participatory process.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Government argues that horizontal accountability is in place. Provisions for consultation although are not absent, but the process of consultation is vague.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Judgment in central Vista is also not clear on the matter of public participation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Development of Land Acquisition act provides a few lessons that have spelt out consent required from a minimum number of landowners.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Process\u00a0of\u00a0architectural services procurement<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">The process of choosing a <strong>designer for a public project needs improvement\u00a0<\/strong>as there is a lack of evaluation criteria and standards for design. Also, weightage is given to lower fees instead of better designs.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>The architecture firms face entry barriers<\/strong> as their expertise is judged on the basis of their company\u2019s turnover. The unreasonable revenue conditions make it difficult for many firms to qualify and also reduce the pool of choice.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Way Forward <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>First,<\/strong> according to the dissenting judge, the most basic principles of procedural fairness\u00a0require the state to make adequate and intelligible disclosures. It becomes more important as the project will have permanent and irreversible consequences.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Second,<\/strong>\u00a0for\u00a0improving consultation,\u00a0regulations\u00a0and process\u00a0have to clearly state what prior\u00a0disclosures are required,\u00a0when meetings have to be held and\u00a0reasons\u00a0for accepting and declining suggestions\u00a0should be listed properly.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Third,<\/strong>\u00a0the government adopted the Quality and cost based selection (QCBS) for choosing designers. This method specifies requirements for consultants, places higher weightage on their technical capability and lower weightage on financial proposals.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><strong>Fourth<\/strong>, in order to reduce the entry barrier<strong>,<\/strong> one can consider the suggestions made by the Architects\u2019 Council of Europe. It suggests dropping turnover requirements and emphasized qualitative selection criteria.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Weightage given to design value has to be clear and fixed as more than 65% of the registered architects in India are below 35 years and many firms are medium-sized, such changes are all the more required.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: The issue of public consultation in the project development process should not be underestimated. Introduction In the recent judgment of the Supreme Court, Rajeev Suri v. Delhi Development Authority, Court granted its approval to the proposed redevelopment of the Central Vista in the national capital.\u00a0 What are the changes proposed? In 2009, the Central&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/central-vista-judgment-issue-of-public-participation-in-public-projects\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Central Vista judgment: Issue of public participation in public projects<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":75673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[1578,1400,1581],"class_list":["post-76326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","tag-central_vista_redevelopment","tag-eco_10","tag-po_9","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/SC-judgment.jpg?fit=1280%2C700&ssl=1","views":{"total":695,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}