India, May 22 -- The Delhi high court on Wednesday took strong exception to the Delhi government's Public Works Department (PWD) for unilaterally constituting a high-level committee to maintain Chandni Chowk, observing that the move was in contravention of the court's earlier directive which had only sought suggestions for such a panel.

A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the Delhi government's counsel to seek instructions on how the PWD issued the order dated March 26 constituting the committee, even though the court had not authorised it.

"We are astonished to note such an order being passed by the government, that too with the approval of the higher authorities in the government," the court said i...