SC dismisses plea claiming 75 per cent of Indians live in high seismic zones

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking directions to minimise earthquake damage, noting that seismic preparedness is a government policy matter. The bench questioned the petitioner’s arguments, remarking, “Should we relocate everyone to the moon?” while refusing to consider media reports

New Delhi: “So we should relocate everyone to the moon or where?” the Supreme Court asked on Friday while dismissing a petition which said 75 per cent of India’s population is in a high seismic zone and sought directions to the authorities to minimise damage from earthquakes.

The petitioner, who was appearing in person, told a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that earlier it was considered that only Delhi was in the high seismic zone, but recently it was concluded that 75 per cent of the Indian population falls under it.

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“So we should relocate everyone to the moon or where?” the bench asked. The petitioner said recently, there was a big earthquake in Japan. “First, we have to bring volcanoes into this country, then we can compare it with Japan,” the bench said.

The petitioner said the authorities should make arrangements to minimise damage in case an earthquake strikes. “That is for the government to take care of; this court cannot do it. Dismissed,” the bench said.

At the outset, the petitioner said recently, there was a lot of information that was relevant to his petition. The bench said these are all policy matters for the government to take care of.

When the petitioner referred to some media reports, the bench observed, “These are newspaper reports. We are not bothered about them.”