The plea by Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati urged the court to declare the situation in Joshimath a national disaster and direct the National Disaster Management Authority to aid and assist the residents.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday fixed January 16 to hear a plea highlighting the Joshimath tragedy but told the petitioner that there are democratically elected institutions to take care of such happenings and that everything need not be brought to the court.

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud told the counsel, who urged the court to take up the matter for hearing on Wednesday, that “everything that is important in the country doesn’t have to come to us right? There are democratically elected institutions which can deal with matters which fall within their control”.

The counsel told the bench, also comprising Justice P S Narasimha, that the matter was important and that people were on the road. “There are institutions taking care of it,” Justice Narasimha responded.

Almost a week after cracks appeared on many roads and in hundreds of houses in Uttarakhand’s Joshimath, authorities on Sunday declared it a landslide and subsidence-hit zone. The plea by Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati urged the court to declare the situation in Joshimath a national disaster and direct the National Disaster Management Authority to aid and assist the residents.

The petitioner alleged the developments are the consequence of large-scale industrialisation in the area. “No development is needed at the cost of human life and their ecosystem and if any such thing is to happen, then it is the duty of the State and Union government to stop the same immediately at war level,” the plea said.