E-Paper
Illegal buildings: Delhi HC summons officials
A division bench of Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma granted 15 days to the MCD and DDA to file a report.
Expressing anguish at the failure of the authorities in preventing encroachments at several protected monuments, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday summoned the Divisional Commissioner, ASI Superintending Engineer and Wakf Board authorities to appear before it on February 15.
A division bench of Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma granted 15 days to the MCD and DDA to file a detailed report in this regard by the next date.
The bench regretted that despite several directives issued by it earlier, the MCD and DDA failed to remove the encroachments from the protected sites and observed that people cannot be allowed to sleep at these places.
"How can the state be run like this", it asked.
The bench's observations came during the hearing of a PIL filed by Heritage and Culture Forum after ASI counsel Sanjay Jain submitted that out of the 172 protected monuments in the capital, 14 were under encroachments by various vested interests.
He said notices were served on 500 encroachers and demolition orders were issued in 50 such cases. He, however, said the encroachers could not be evicted by the ASI as the enforcement had to be done by the MCD and other local authorities.
The ASI counsel informed the court that out of the 14 encroached protected monuments, six were places of worship including the legendary Razia Sultana's tomb.
