A division bench led by Chief Justice A P Shah observed that the ongoing practice of parks hosting commercial activities and weddings was in violation of a Supreme Court order in December 1996. The SC had directed the civic agencies to stop letting out the city’s green stretches in a phased manner. The court had given a year’s time to the agencies to completely stop the practice.

“Majority of the parks are being converted into community halls. This defeats the very objective of the Supreme Court order,” the bench, comprising Justice Sanjeev Khanna, noted.

Now, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Delhi Development Authority have been directed to conduct a joint operation to “identify fresh sites” to construct community halls in the city to prevent further misuse of parks. The bench has asked them to ready the list of sites by April 29, the next date of hearing.

The hearing was held on a public interest litigation filed by a Delhi-based NGO in 2006, which complained that social functions in public parks caused harassment to the public, as it clogged roads.

The petition evoked the Masterplan 2001, which banned the use of “public parks for commercial activities of organising social functions, including weddings, etc.”