The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday banned fresh constructions of places of worship on public land.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday banned fresh constructions of places of worship on public land. It also left it to the state governments to decide — on a case to case basis — whether to remove existing shrines which encroach on roads. The order applies to places of worship of all religions.
“Looking at the gravity and far reaching consequences of the issues, we decided to implead all states and Union territories (UTs) in the matter,” a bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Mukundakam Sharma said, seeking the response of the states and the UTs on the politically sensitive issue.
Earlier, solicitor general Gopal Subramanium had sought a direction from the SC that in principle, all states and UTs had agreed to stall fresh constructions of places of worship on public land. The judges told district collectors to send their reports to the chief secretary of the respective state. The chief secretaries have to file their reports with the SC within eight weeks.
In 2006, the Gujarat government had demolished unauthorised temples on congested streets in Ahemdabad. The Gujarat high court (HC) subsequently upheld the Narendra Modi government's decision and directed civic bodies in the state to demolish all illegal structures including places of worship on public land.
But the Union government challenged in the SC the part of the HC's decision dealing with places of worship saying it would seriously impact law and order. The SC stayed the order.
No studies have been conducted to estimate the area of public land encroached by places of worship. The Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act, 2007, defines "public purpose" land as land acquired for the purpose of defence installations, infrastructure projects or public utility projects, where 70% of the land is purchased. The government cannot acquire land for private parties except under the 70% condition. Public land is land acquired for "public purpose" for which the government pays compensation to original owners.
In New Delhi, said lawyer Ranjeet Kumar, nearly 20 acres of land, worth Rs1,000 crore, have been illegally occupied near Connaught Place -- a stone's throw away from the Supreme Court.
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