A bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, Justice A.M.Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud posed the query to petitioner Dhanesh Ieshdhan, who was seeking directions to the state governments to assist the civic bodies in clearing footpaths and public places of all encroachments.
Ieshdhan had moved the top court in 2014, seeking direction to the states to take appropriate steps to assist the civic administration to clear encroachment from all such public places or areas and to maintain law and order at the time of removal of such encroachment.
Telling the petitioner that his plea for direction to clear all the footpaths of encroachments was not a feasible one, the bench asked: "If the court ordered clearing the footpaths of all encroachments - will it happen? If we say that corruption should come to an end, will it happen? If we say that there should be no murder or crime, will crime come to an end?"
"If we were say that there should be Rama Rajya, will it come?"
The bench's query came Ieshdhan, who heads NGO Voice of India - persisted with his plea even after the bench decided to dismiss it.
He told the court that he had approached it with great hope and expectation and wondered if all the fundamental rights were just on papers with no real substance.
Telling the petitioner that not everything was possible by approaching the top court, the bench asked him if he had himself done something in the direction of clearing the footpaths of encroachments.
As Ieshdhan persisted with his prayer, the court directed the hearing of the plea by an appropriate bench in February next year.
The top court had on September 5, 2014, issued notice to the centre, states and union territories on a PIL seeking to identify all public, roads, footpaths, streets, lanes and by-lanes which have been encroached upon and to remove these in accordance with law.
