You sit tight and let national security go to hell: HC ask Navy on Worli building

Navy in their defence submitted that there are missile based installations near the building which will be a security threat and also that NOC from Navy is required for buildings that come up within 300 meters of naval installations.

The vacation bench of the court,however,pointed out on Wednesday that the Navy has done nothing except writing letters to various authorities including the BEST for disconnecting the power supply.

“You’ve just been writing letters. This is how you protect national security?” a division bench of Justice S J Kathawala and Justice Rajesh Ketkar asked,pointing out that the building has been there since April 2009 with power supply.

“You sit tight and let national security go to hell?” justice Kathawala asked,adding that they should have come to the court in the beginning.

The Naval authorities also said that following their letters,the state government was taking action including issuance of a stop work notice.

BEST too was not spared after it was revealed that the power cut was done without any proper order or show cause notice to that effect.

The judges in the morning session observed that this as a serious matter and called for the relevant files and the officer to be present in court for the afternoon session.

However,BEST in the second session said that they are ready to restore the power supply from today till the next hearing on June 14 when the case will be finally heard.

Petitoners pointed out that there is another building in the vicinity as well as the rehabilitation building to which the Navy had no objections.

Navy said that this building was there since 1995 during which time the parameters were different. They also submitted that the building was close to the administrative side and not defence installations.

The case will come up for hearing on June 14.