The Delhi High Court is hearing a plea seeking removal of an illegally constructed temple in front of a property in South Delhi’s Defense Colony area as encroachment. During the hearing, the High Court observed that it was not clear whether the religious committee headed by the Lieutenant Governor, which recommended the demolition of illegal structures, even needed to deal with minor issues of encroachment.
A single bench of Justice Rekha Palli has directed the SHO of the police station concerned to deploy a policeman round the clock in the disputed temple premises and submit a report. The judge has said that the SHO should give information about how many people come and go in the disputed temple. With this, the court adjourned the hearing of the case to 16 December.
High Court heeded the plea of Delhi Government
The high court took note of the fact that the Delhi government had earlier argued that the authorities had planned to demolish the illegal structure on October 4, however, the matter has now been referred to the religious committee. The counsel for the Delhi government said that since the religious committee has not given permission for the demolition of the disputed structure till date, they are not in a position to say anything. The court said it found merit in the plea of the petitioner’s counsel that once the authorities took the stand to remove the structure, they could no longer change the stand in the name of referring the matter to the religious committee.
Petitioner argued
Justice Palli said, “I find that there is no clarity as to whether the religious committee constituted under the order of the Lieutenant Governor is required to deal with such a small case of encroachment.” It also directed the officials to produce the relevant documents before the court. The petitions said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, some people had illegally built a temple on public land located on Bhishma Pitamah Marg, right in front of the petitioner’s property. It has been claimed in the petition that people create fuss at that place. Not only this, this illegal construction has become a gambling den.
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