The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday directed the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) to file a specific affidavit from the municipal commissioner stating the city’s waste-processing capacity and giving an undertaking that no waste generated in Chandigarh is being dumped elsewhere.

The division bench of chief justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and justice Rohit Kapoor also asked the corporation to specify the time required to clear the accumulated waste at the Dadumajra landfill and to confirm that the entire quantity would be processed only at MC’s own facility.

Appearing for the MC, senior advocate Gaurav Mohunta informed the court that the upgraded processing capacity at Dadumajra waste plant was approximately 450 tonnes per day and that the quantity of waste being received (about 200 tonnes of wet waste and 100 tonnes of dry waste daily) was well within this capacity. Consequently, a proposal for an additional plant had been shelved.

Dry and wet waste have already been removed; only mixed waste remains, estimated at around 7,000 metric tonnes. The corporation stated that the entire mixed-waste dump was expected to be cleared shortly.

Petitioner advocate Amit Sharma, appearing in person, contested these assertions.

He submitted that while the height of the Dadumajra dump had been reduced, the underlying problem persisted because waste continued to be transported and dumped at other locations in Punjab, Haryana and around economically weaker section housing areas in Chandigarh.

“The dump there from the mountains has been reduced. However, in the same breath, they are throwing dump elsewhere,” he told the court.

Sharma also questioned the repeated extensions of timelines for establishing adequate processing facilities. He pointed out that MC had earlier assured the court of resolution by 2022, later shifted the deadline to 2024 and then to 2026, and still lacked a clear line of sight for a permanent solution.

When the corporation’s counsel described the allegation of external dumping as hearsay, Sharma relied on the corporation’s own pleadings that showed than an FIR was registered against them in Punjab.

The chief justice after hearing both sides observed that the court wanted the factual position placed on record with clarity. “We don’t want your waste to be dumped elsewhere, either in Chandigarh or in Punjab or Haryana,” he said, making it clear that merely shifting waste from Dadumajra to another location could not be treated as a solution.

The bench directed the MC to file a specific affidavit within one week setting out the exact processing capacity, affirming that all waste generated is processed at the MC’s own facility, confirming that no waste is dumped at any other place, and stating the time required to clear the existing dump at Dadumajra.

The matter will be listed next Thursday. The chief justice also reminded the parties that the proceedings are not adversarial and directed them to be forthright in their statements before the court.