The Hindu : New Delhi News : ASI draws court ire for setting up special panel

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ASI draws court ire for setting up special panel

Staff Reporter

It was advising on grant of permission for carrying out construction within 100 metres of protected monuments

Centre had prohibited any construction within 100 metres from a protected monument
ASI panel had processed over 400 applications for relaxation of the norm

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has pulled up the Archaeological Survey of India for setting up an Expert Advisory Committee to advise its Director-General on appeals against grant of permission for carrying out construction within 100 metres of protected monuments across the country.

Directing maintenance of status quo vis-À-vis two houses built within 100 metres of Humayun’s Tomb in Nizamuddin East here, Chief Justice A. P. Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar said: “The committee of the ASI, which has no basis for its functioning, has been examining applications and granting permissions for construction within 100 metres of protected monuments contrary to a notification of the Union Government without any guidelines whatsoever.”

“What is even more astonishing is that in the notes on the file proposing setting up of the committee, no reference is made either to an order by a Division Bench of the High Court or to an order by the Supreme Court regarding the matter,” the Bench observed.

The ASI had taken the stand before the Supreme Court that the Union Government’s notification of June 16, 1992, prohibiting any construction within 100 metres from a protected monument was sacrosanct and ought not to be diluted at all.

“The committee set up by the ASI to consider relaxation of the norm on a case-to-case basis is not only unacceptable as being contradictory to its own stand, but is also clearly impermissible in law,” the Bench observed.

The Bench said it was informed that the committee had processed over 400 applications from all over the country and over 150 applications from Delhi itself.

It directed the ASI through its Director-General to immediately stop accepting and processing any application for grant of permission for construction/renovation of any structures or buildings in a prohibited area and also accepting appeals against any orders that might have been issued refusing such permissions. It further directed the ASI to take steps within four weeks to reconsider all permissions granted pursuant to the appointment of the committee and take consequential steps after giving the affected parties an opportunity to be heard.

The Bench passed the orders on an appeal by a building construction company seeking vacation of a stay on construction of a house falling within 100 metres of Humayun’s Tomb.

A Single-Judge Bench of the Court had stayed the construction on a petition by an advocate whose house abuts that of the construction company. The advocate had filed the petition challenging permission granted by the ASI to the company to rebuild the house which it had purchased in 2005. The permission was granted by the ASI Director-General on advice by the expert committee following an appeal by the company against rejection of its application for construction by a superintendent engineer of the ASI.

However, the Court later found that the advocate’s house was also built illegally. The Bench, therefore, ordered that status quo be maintained in respect of both properties -- A-9 and A-10 -- “as they are stated to be in contravention of the Government’s notification of 1992”.

The Bench directed the Government to exercise its powers to direct the owner or occupier of an authorised building in a prohibited area to remove such building or part thereof vis-À-vis both properties or any other occupier by issuing them each a show-cause notice within two weeks and pass a reasoned order after hearing them.

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