Maximum religious shrines saved from demolition
| Date :18-Jun-2019 |
Staff Reporter:
Out of 1205 shrines, as many as 1084 placed in Category A
NMC to act against 121 category B structures
Lays down time-bound process to regularise, relocate or remove shrines
Zone-wise list of unauthorised structures
Location Unauthorised structure
Dharampeth 53
Laxminagar 23
Mangalwari 15
Hanuman nagar 08
Lakadganj 08
Aashi nagar 06
Satranjipura 05
Dgantolu 02
Gandhibag 01
Total 121
In a major respite to Nagpurians, the civic body on Monday informed the High Court that out of 1,205 religious structures and places of worship on open spaces, public utility plots within lay-outs and even on private lands, only 121 have been placed in category “B” and would be removed within one month. Remaining 1,084 religious structures have been included in ‘A’ category and will not be touched, the NMC informed Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court. Thus, the NMC had candidly accepted its folly of preparing a legally unsustainable list of religious places leading to unwarranted demolition drive last year and made course correction.
On September 19, the High Court had scrapped a “faulty and legally untenable” list of so called unauthorised religious structures prepared by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) by completely misinterpreting the court orders and starting demolition drive creating serious law and order problem in the city. The High Court had pulled up the NMC for preparing the defective list ignoring the Government Resolution dated May 5, 2011 which itself was issued to comply with Supreme Court order dated September 29, 2009. Instead of committee headed by Municipal Commissioner in which Collector, Commissioner of Police, NIT Chairman who were named as members and One Deputy Commissioner who was to act as member-secretary, the list was prepared by sub-ordinate officers led by one Assistant Commissioner of NMC and entire demolition drive and notices were based on the basis of this legally questionable list leading to massive public outroar and friction between people and administration right during the festive season. Barring an obscure public notice, no publicity in local papers was given to this list and everybody was in dark about such a list till they received demolition notice.
Correcting its blunder, the NMC this time scrupulously adhered to procedure, published the list of shrines along with their categories, constituted a high-level committee, conducted meetings in which objections and suggestions were heard and out of 48 suggestions 46 suggestion to retain category A were accepted while 60 shrines placed in category B were included in category A, the affidavit stated.
The Municipal Level Committee after careful scrutiny accepted the list and placed it before the High Court on Monday. A division bench consisting of Justice Ravi Deshpande and Justice Vinay Joshi while hearing a PIL filed by Manohar Khorgade, directed NMC and NIT to ensure removal of unauthorised religious structures as per the list within stipulated time while reiterating earlier directions not to protect any illegal shrine constructed after September 29, 2009.
The High Court further directed NMC and NIT also to remove debris of demolished structures and not to allow any other encroachment. NMC General Body had already passed a unanimous resolution on August 9, 2018 regularising religious structures on open spaces in layouts by amending regulation nos 13.3.1.3 (2), 13.8 and 14.20 of the Development Control Regulations to remove all legal ambiguities and to protect shrines in lay-outs revered by citizens, from demolition. However, no protection would be granted to shrines located on roads and footpaths, whether old or new, posing obstruction to smooth flow of traffic and structures on roads, footpath belonging to any faith not touched so far, should not be spared from demolition drive.
NMC’s faulty list led to chaos
Last year, after the NMC and NIT initiated demolition drive targeting places of worship, many shrine managements and citizens had moved the High Court questioning the legality of this move. The High Court division bench headed by Justice Bhushan Gavai and Justice Sunil Shukre had rebuked the NMC for its inept handling and rejected its sheepish argument about non-receipt of any objection from the citizens while dubbing it as a mere face-saver. The NMC had tried to blame the religious shrine management for not filing objections in time, only to be pulled up by the High Court asking it to explain why it incorporated these shrines in the list when Supreme Court order was specific about illegal religious structures on roads and footpaths.
These religious places are also used for recreation and social assembly as per composition of particular locality, the High Court noted while rejecting this untenable logic put forth by NMC. The High Court had directed authorities to personally prepare the first list as per GR dated May 5, 2011 and allowed them to receive inputs from sub-ordinates within one month. The High Court had also prescribed in detail the modalities to be followed while finalising the list of structures to be regularised, relocated and removed while insisting that principles of natural justice must be followed and consultation with stakeholders must be held as per procedure laid down in the GR.
Obstruction to smooth flow of traffic, public sanction and permissible use as per DCR were to be considered by Corporation Level, District Level and State Level Committees, however corporation did not even look into its own DCR which allows 15 per cent construction in open space and public utility plot for recreational purposes and there is no bar on construction of religious structures, the State Government had argued. The High Court after hearing all the sides, had passed a detailed order referring to all previous orders, directed authorities to prepare a fresh list putting shrines in respective categories, give wide publicity to it, invite objections and suggestions, submit cases of pre-1960 structures to State Level Committee for its nod, issue notice to shrines which can not be regularised and give them hearing, in case demolition is inevitable and give them a chance of relocation and only then go for demolition. The time-line has been prescribed as per GR. Adv Firdos Mirza (original petitioner) Additional GP Anand Deshpande (State), Advocate Sudhir Puranik (NMC), Advocate Girish Kunte (NIT) represented respondents.