New Delhi, The Supreme Court docket has directed the Defence Colony Resident Welfare Affiliation to pay ₹40 lakh as compensation for the unauthorised occupation of Lodhi-era monument “Gumti of Shaikh Ali” for over six many years.
Pay ₹40 lakh compensation for unlawful occupation of Lodhi-era monument: SC to RWA
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah refused to waive off the associated fee and posted the matter for listening to on April 8.
“We think it will be appropriate if compensation of ₹40 lakh is paid by the Resident Welfare Association to the department of archaeology, Delhi govt, entrusted with the task of conservation and restoration of the monument,” the bench stated.
The highest courtroom had earlier requested the RWA to elucidate how a lot prices needs to be imposed on it for the unauthorised occupation of the monument.
The bench had directed Delhi’s archaeology division to represent a committee for the restoration of the monument.
The bench beforehand directed for a “peaceful” handover of the positioning’s possession to the Land and Improvement Workplace.
The bench had handed the order after perusing a report filed by Swapna Liddle, who’s ex-convener of the Delhi chapter of the Indian Nationwide Belief for Artwork and Cultural Heritage.
The courtroom had appointed Liddle to survey and examine the constructing and confirm the injury brought on to the monument and the extent of its restoration.
The bench in November 2024, pulled up the ASI for failing to guard the monument in Defence Colony, with the CBI flagging {that a} RWA was utilizing the fifteenth century construction as its workplace.
Fuming over the inaction on the a part of the ASI for having allowed the resident affiliation to occupy the construction for the reason that Sixties, the bench stated, “What kind of authority are you . What is your mandate. You have gone back from your mandate of protecting the ancient structures. We are perturbed by your inaction.”
It pulled up the RWA, which occupied the tomb in Sixties, and for justifying its occupation by saying anti-social components would have broken it.
Justice Amanullah expressed his displeasure over the RWA’s conduct and its justification.
The highest courtroom was listening to a petition filed by one Rajiv Suri, a resident of Defence Colony, looking for the courtroom’s instructions to declare the construction as a protected monument underneath the Historical Monuments and Archeological Websites and Stays Act of 1958.
He challenged the 2019 Delhi Excessive Court docket order which refused to cross the instructions.
The highest courtroom earlier this yr requested the CBI to probe into the circumstances underneath which the construction got here to be occupied by the RWA as its workplace and submit a report.
The probe company knowledgeable the bench there have been a number of alterations made within the construction by the RWA, together with a false ceiling.
The highest courtroom was additionally knowledgeable that in 2004, the ASI began the method of declaring the tomb as a protected monument however dragged its toes upon objection from the residents’ physique.
It was additionally knowledgeable that in 2008, the Centre dropped the plan of declaring it as a protected construction.
Suri’s plea referred to a number of historic information and stated the construction discovered a point out in a survey of Delhi monuments carried out in 1920 by Maulvi Zafar Hasan, a British period archaeologist.