New Delhi, Apr 24 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Thursday chastised the Delhi government and DDA for not making progress over the construction of official residences for district judicial officers and said “not to test the court’s patience”.

A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said, “A request was made to the DDA by the court in a judicial order. Our request has fallen on deaf ears.” The court lamented it had to “virtually beg”.

“We expect from the government officials to realise the needs of judicial officers of having decent living conditions and view the same with expected sensitivity. We have to virtually beg. The court has recorded its request in one of its orders… Don’t push us to the wall. Ensure otherwise these sweet sounding words will not help,” it said.

The court went on, “We are only short of summoning the officers now and every department is testing our patience and that distance is just a few millimetre. It is for both the Central government and the state government. Apprise all the departments and officers about this. They should not test the court’s patience like this.” The high court observed though the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) previously said land for construction of flats at CBD ground in Shahdara had been allotted, there was no formal letter issued in this regard.

The decision on requisite funds could not be taken by the Delhi government for construction of flats for want of formal allotment letter, it added.

When the DDA counsel said a formal allotment letter will be issued within two weeks with an intimation to the court and the government, the bench said funds will be released once the letter was issued.

The court was hearing petitions filed by the Judicial Service Association, which sought a direction to expedite the availability of government residential homes to Delhi judicial service officers, and the Delhi higher judicial services officers.

The members of the district judiciary filed the plea owing to a shortfall of residential flats.

The petitioners claimed two alternate lands, in Rohini and Anand Vihar, were available in Delhi for construction of flats which the DDA said was under consideration.

“We expect that consideration to the said proposal will be made by the authorities of DDA,” the court said and asked if government officers didn’t read judicial orders.

The bench asked the authorities to consider the proposal keeping in mind the directions passed by the Supreme Court on the issue.

“They should be mindful of the fact that any laxity on their part in taking the decision contrary to directions and observations of the Supreme Court may be viewed with requisite seriousness by the court,” it said.

The court then granted three weeks to the Delhi government to take a positive decision on convening a meeting over the release of funds for flats in Dwarka where a building was earlier built but demolished due to substandard and faulty construction.

The court directed the commissioner (land management) to file an affidavit on the steps taken for compliance of its orders including availability of alternate flats for judicial officers and asked the DDA’s director (institutional land) to be present in the hearing in May. PTI SKV SKV AMK AMK