New Delhi, Aug 1 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Monday dismissed a plea by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) seeking it be permitted not to disclose the design of a pillar of its elevated corridor in south Delhi which collapsed in 2009, killing six people.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said: ‘The appeal stands dismissed.’
‘However, we may state that there may be a situation where disclosure may affect the security, strategic, scientific and economic interests of the state but the present case is not such a one,’ said the bench.
‘Supplying the aforesaid information, as we perceive, would not impair the process of investigation and prosecution of offenders more so when it is in the public domain,’ the bench added.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the bench had July 5 reserved the order on DMRC’s appeal against a single judge’s December 2010 order to provide information to architect Sudhir Vohra.
Vohra had sought all details of both the pile foundation and the superstructure, including all steel reinforcement details, foundation details, engineering calculations and soil tests for the cantilevered bracket of Metro pillar number 67 at Zamrudpur near Lajpat Nagar. The pillar was on the Central Secretariat-Badarpur Metro line, which is now operational.
The Delhi Metro refused to share any details with the architect, saying it held the intellectual property right of the designs and other details and their disclosure would affect the commercial interest of the company which made it.
