India’s top court on earthquake fears: ‘Should we relocate to the moon?’
India’s Supreme Court has dismissed a petition seeking judicial orders to protect the country from major earthquakes, asking whether the only alternative would be to “relocate everyone to the moon.”
The case was brought by a petitioner appearing in person, who argued that three-quarters of India’s population now lives in high-seismic zones. Until recently, he said, only Delhi was believed to fall into a high-risk zone, but new assessments suggested that 75% of Indians were exposed.
The petitioner urged the court to direct authorities to take urgent steps to reduce the risk of catastrophic damage.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta rejected the plea with a dose of dry humour: “So we should relocate everyone to the moon or where?” the judges asked, noting that such matters lie firmly within the government’s policy responsibilities, not the court’s.
When the petitioner pointed to a recent major earthquake in Japan as justification for intervention, the bench responded: “First we have to bring volcanoes into this country, then we can compare it with Japan,” implying that India’s geological conditions are fundamentally different.
The petitioner insisted that authorities should at least be required to prepare for potential disasters. The court disagreed. “That is for the government to take care of. This court cannot do it. Dismissed,” the bench said.
Attempts by the petitioner to rely on recent media reports were also brushed aside.
“These are newspaper reports. We are not bothered about them,” the bench said, stressing once again that questions of seismic risk, infrastructure safety and disaster planning fall under executive decision-making, not judicial oversight.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
