No uniform procedure to regulate museums: Centre concedes in Supreme Court

The Centre on Monday conceded in the Supreme Court that there were no standard uniform procedures devised to regulate aspects of functioning of museums across India and it has started reforms, including the digitisation process, for having computerised database for it.

The Ministry of Culture said that they have formulated a 14-point museum reform guidelines and it has been circulated to all central museums under the ministry and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for implementation.
"It is respectfully submitted that presently there are no standard uniform procedures devised for all the museums with reference to different aspects of their functioning," the ministry said in a counter affidavit filed before the bench of justices J Chelameswar and P C Ghose.

The affidavit was filed in a pending habeas corpus petition (a plea filed to secure presence of missing persons) filed by a relative of whistleblower Sunil Kumar Upadhaya, a preservation officer of Indian Museum Kolkata, who is missing. The court also sought status report within four weeks into the probe conducted by the state police under the direct supervision of Special IG, CID.

Regarding some of the idols stolen and smuggled outside India, the ministry said in its affidavit that two such idols have been recovered from Australia while two antiques, which were stolen and taken to the US, have been returned to the Consulate General in New York and ASI would bring these sculptures back soon. The response on stolen artefacts comes in the wake of November 7, 2014 hearing during which the apex court had expressed concern over CAG's findings that Indian artifacts have reached foreign auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's and said that it will later decide the scope of probe.

In the petition, filed through lawyer Anirudh Sharma, several other issues have been raised including the security of museums across the country. Responding to the notice, the ministry said that the CISF was providing security to National Museum, New Delhi and Salarjung Museum at Hyderabad while the force has carried out a joint survey of the premises at the two museums at Kolkata to assess the requirement of forces for deployment which has not been possible in absence of accommodation facility for the cops. 

"However, the deployment has not been made possible so far as both the institutions (Indian Museum and Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata) have not been able to provide barrack accommodation in their campus as per CISF requirements," the affidavit said. The affidavit further said, "for the development, modernization and standardisation of procedures for the improvement of the functioning of these museums, the Ministry of Culture has formulated a 14-point Museum Reform Guidelines which have been circulated to all the central museums....for implementation."

The ministry also informed the apex court that a committee under chairmanship of Administrator of National Museum at New Delhi has been constituted for formulation of a comprehensive and uniform security policy for its museums and a conservation policy for restoration of artefacts was also being prepared. It said implementation of 'Jatan Collections Management Software' programme developed by the CDAC Pune would ensure that "the standard digital accession register is maintained in all the museums uniformly apart from having the physical acquisition registers."

It said software has been implemented in large museums under the ministry and ASI and they have planned to cover all the 42 remaining museums of ASI in a phased manner in the next three-four years. "This software (Jatan) has been implemented in the 10 museums of Ministry of Culture/ASI in the first phase and more than 11,000 objects in the possession of these museums have been digitised. The digitisation of the collections of these museums would ensure that proper record/inventory is maintained which could also be verified at a later stage, if required," the affidavit said.

The ministry said physical verification of antiquities in the museums under the ministry has been completed in Victoria Memorial Hall at Kolkata while the process was going on in the Indian Museum, Kolkata and Salarjung Museum at Hyderabad. "National Museum, New Delhi, has completed physical verification of 31,949 objects. Necessary directions have also been issued to all the museums to complete the process of physical verification of their art objects at the earliest and to report compliance to the Ministry," the affidavit said.