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State Governments got a rap from the Supreme Court on Tuesday for going slow on the implementation of its order to demolish unauthorised religious structures and to frame a policy by which no religious structure is allowed to encroach on public land.
With the court monitoring the progress of States since its order was passed on September 29, 2009, the bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma were displeased with the slow progress by States — yet to complete the identification of such illegal temples, mosques, churches and other religious structures.
The court vent its ire on the Maharashtra Government for failing to frame any policy on relocation, rehabilitation or removal of illegal religious places. At one time the bench even threatened to summon the Chief Secretary after it found that the affidavit filed by the State disclosed 17,000 unauthorised religious structures.
However, the affidavit further disclosed that after razing 380 illegal religious structures, on March 14, 2011 the demolition drive was stalled based on representations from religious bodies who complained that the action hurt religious sentiments. The court refused to buy any argument and gave three weeks time to file status report.
Delhi Government too came with a proposal that a policy was in the stage of formulation. In this regard a meeting was even chaired by the Chief Minister attended by Opposition leaders and Government officials. Pending such decision, action was not taken against unauthorised structures. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Mohan Parasaran informed the Court that in all 238 illegal structures were identified of which a Religious Committee constituted by Lieutenant Governor had given consent to remove or relocate 13 only.
The position in other States was no better with Tamil Nadu reporting 77,453 unauthorised religious structures in the State. But with the new Government in place, the counsel for the State sought time to file fresh status report and action taken against the erring properties. Even the Uttar Pradesh Government sought time to file a fresh action taken report after bringing to the notice of the court that in all the State had 45,152 such structures of which 47 were removed while 27,345 would be regularised.
With the court monitoring the progress of States since its order was passed on September 29, 2009, the bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma were displeased with the slow progress by States — yet to complete the identification of such illegal temples, mosques, churches and other religious structures.
The court vent its ire on the Maharashtra Government for failing to frame any policy on relocation, rehabilitation or removal of illegal religious places. At one time the bench even threatened to summon the Chief Secretary after it found that the affidavit filed by the State disclosed 17,000 unauthorised religious structures.
However, the affidavit further disclosed that after razing 380 illegal religious structures, on March 14, 2011 the demolition drive was stalled based on representations from religious bodies who complained that the action hurt religious sentiments. The court refused to buy any argument and gave three weeks time to file status report.
Delhi Government too came with a proposal that a policy was in the stage of formulation. In this regard a meeting was even chaired by the Chief Minister attended by Opposition leaders and Government officials. Pending such decision, action was not taken against unauthorised structures. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Mohan Parasaran informed the Court that in all 238 illegal structures were identified of which a Religious Committee constituted by Lieutenant Governor had given consent to remove or relocate 13 only.
The position in other States was no better with Tamil Nadu reporting 77,453 unauthorised religious structures in the State. But with the new Government in place, the counsel for the State sought time to file fresh status report and action taken against the erring properties. Even the Uttar Pradesh Government sought time to file a fresh action taken report after bringing to the notice of the court that in all the State had 45,152 such structures of which 47 were removed while 27,345 would be regularised.
