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Stop demolition of shrines in Vadodara: SC

PTI

New Delhi, May 4: Against the backdrop of violence in Vadodara following the demolition of a dargah, the Supreme Court today stayed a Gujarat High Court order to remove all religious structures encroaching upon public land after the Centre intervened to seek an injunction.

Additional solicitor general, Mr Gopal Subramanian made an urgent mention of a special leave petition before a bench of Ms Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice Dalveer Bhandari seeking stay on the May 2 order of the High Court “in view of the extremely volatile situation prevalent in Vadodara”.

The bench stayed the High Court order and issued notices to the Gujarat Chief Secretary, state’s Director General of Police, police commissioners and municipal commissioners of Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and development authorities of these cities seeking their response in the matter.

It also issued a notice to the Times of India (Ahmedabad) on the basis of whose report the High Court passed its order.

The ASG said the High Court took suo motu action based on a newspaper report “without even conducting a prima facie examination into the veracity of the contents of the newspaper report and without any pleadings on record”.

“There was no petition, no affidavits or counter- affidavits or any official documents about the total number of temples or Islamic shrines on public space or whether they are protected monuments,” he submitted.

Quoting a home ministry report, he said situation in Vadodara was tense after the violence and army has staged a flag march in the riot-affected areas. The city was hit by violence after the demolition of a dargah situated on the middle of a road.

“If the demolition drive is continued, the situation in Vadodara may become uncontrollable and may result in repercussions in other states as well. Union of India is only interested in ensuring that the law and order situation in the state of Gujarat does not go out of hand and it is with this objective that the Union of India is praying for a stay of the impugned judgment,” the Centre said in its SLP.

Stay on the operation of the order would give the state of Gujarat enough time to enter into a dialogue with various parties involved in order to resolve apprehensions, if any, the Centre said.

The Centre also pointed out that the newspaper report was based on an alleged survey conducted by the state government in 2000 and the High Court did not verify the same.

Treating a report published in a newspaper highlighting various religious structures encroaching the public places as a writ petition, the High Court had directed the authorities to take necessary action and reply by May 5.

It had pulled up the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) for being “silent spectators” regarding encroachments on public places by religious structures.

It had directed that encroachment causing traffic problems should be demolished zone-wise or phase-wise. According to the news report,there were 1,200 temples and 260 Islamic shrines encroaching on public land.

The High Court had also taken a serious view of reports of a mob trying to attack the court building because of the demolition drive undertaken by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMVC) for removal of religious structures that encroach on public space.

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