Chandigarh, February 10
Set up in 1995 for the protection of the environment and to take up other social and legal causes, Chandigarh-based Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation has decided to intervene in the Tata Camelot Project case.

In an application filed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court for being impleaded as an intervener, the foundation, that has Anupam Kher as one of its members, has asserted, “The applicants will not seek any adjournment for filing any pleadings, but will assist this court, in public interest, on the basis of pleadings already on the record.”

The application comes just about four days before the Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is to hear the case. The foundation has, in the application, asserted the writ petition filed by Aalok Jagga in the matter “raises very important issues of public importance pertaining to the character, environment and periphery of Chandigarh, the first experiment of a planned city in India”.

Giving details, counsel Nitin Sarin and Kanwal Bir Singh Kang asserted, “The Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation was set up in the year 1995 and one of its objectives is to take up public causes in public interest and find remedies in accordance with law for the protection of the environment and to improve the living conditions of the citizens of India with greater stress on the economically weaker sections of the society etc.”

The Board of Trustees of the Foundation consists of former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court Justice SS Sodhi, senior advocate ML Sarin, Y Saboo, Jagesh Khaitan, Sushil Goenka and Anupam Kher.

“The first four members of the board have lived in Chandigarh for three to five decades or more,” the application added.

It was further added, “The foundation passed a resolution dated February 6, 2012, resolving to seek intervention in the writ petition.”

The high court has already ordered a stay on the Tata Camelot Housing Colony Project coming up in Punjab’s Kansal village. The stay orders came on a Public Interest Litigation filed by Punjab and Haryana High Court advocate Aalok Jagga.

His counsel DS Patwalia had earlier sought directions to Tata, the state of Punjab and other respondents to maintain status quo in the matter.