New Delhi, June 12: In a major reprieve for road-side eating joints, popularly known as dhabas, operating on the Delhi-Chandigarh Highway in Karnal district of Haryana, the Supreme Court today stayed demolition of nine of them as ordered by the state government. A vacation bench comprising Justice R C Lahoti and Justice Brijesh Kumar gave this relief to the dhaba owners after hearing arguments from their counsel Mahavir Singh. The bench also issued notices to the state government and the district administration.

As per the 1985 notification of the government "no person shall erect or re-erect any building or make or extend any excavation or lay out any means to access to a road within one hundred metres on either side of the road reservation of a by-pass or within thirty metres on either side of the road reservation of any scheduled road not being a by-pass".

All the dhaba owners pleaded that their eating joints were situated at a distance of more than 30 metres of the national highway, which was a scheduled road and hence did not come within the ambit of notification.
After hearing the counsel, the bench said "until further orders status quo as to the suit property of the petitioner, as obtaining today, shall be maintained."

The appeal of the dhaba owners had been dismissed by the appellate tribunal on January 28, 2003 the and Punjab and Haryana high court on April 25, 2003 clearing the way for the Karnal district administration to demolish the dhabas.

Bureau Report