Stop Construction of Religious Shrines on Public Land: Supreme Court
TNN 30 September 2009
NEW DELHI: From now, there will be no fresh construction of temples, mosques or other religious places on roadsides or on public land, ordered the Supreme Court on Tuesday on the basis of a rare consensus among states brokered by the Centre.
The ban, however, may not have any immediate impact on existing temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches that stand tall on roadsides causing major traffic bottle-necks.
The court asked state governments to review the status of each such illegal structure and take a decision expeditiously.
The interim order imposing a blanket ban on fresh construction of religious places on roadsides or illegally on public land came from a Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and M K Sharma on an appeal filed by the Centre challenging a Gujarat High Court order directing demolition of all such structures in Vadodara.
Solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam told the Bench that on September 17, chief secretaries of all states had resolved in principle not to let any religious structure come up illegally on public land. Taking note of the consensus, the Bench ordered, "Pending hearing of the case, as an interim measure, we direct that no unauthorised construction of any religious institution, namely temple, church, mosque or gurudwara shall be permitted on public street or space henceforth."
Aware of the daunting task in preventing sprouting of religious structures on public land and on roadsides, the Bench virtually fastened accountability on district magistrates as nodal officers. It asked them to submit reports to their respective state chief secretary, who in turn would file a status report in the SC before December 7, the next date for hearing.
Quoting the September 19 letter of Union home secretary G K Pillai, the Bench said, "In respect of unauthorised construction of any religious nature existing as on date, the state shall review on case to case basis and take appropriate action as expeditiously as possible." The Centre, fearing a law and order situation in communally sensitive Vadodara, had moved the SC challenging the Gujarat HC order of 2006 directing the state to act tough against any religious structure encroaching on public land.
The SC had stayed the HC order on May 4, 2006. The HC order had come on a PIL, which had quoted a survey by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation stating that there were about 1,200 temples and over 250 mosques encroaching on public land. The situation in Vadodara had reached a communal flash point, when in implementation of the HC order the civic body initiated steps to demolish a dargah situated in the middle of the road.
Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/SC-puts-stop-to-roadside-shrines/articleshow/5069527.cmsSairam,
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