Jaipur: Taking a serious note of the
mushrooming roadside religious places, the Rajasthan High
Court has held that such places of worship are encroachment of
public land and directed the state government to remove as
many as 58,000 such structures within a month.
A division bench of the high court comprising Acting
Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice M Rafiq has noted that
presence of these structures are objectionable.
The court passed this order on a suo moto Public Interest
Litigation taking cognizance of the encroachments. In response
to the PIL state government has submitted that there are
58,000 illegal temples in the state.
"We appreciate religious feelings associated with places
of worship but still God and Godesses too will feel bad
sitting on a roadside or a nallaha. Temples are not like
roadside vendorshops that can be installed anywhere. We cannot
allow encroachments in the name of temples," Justice Mishra
observed.
Justice Mishra also issued an advisory to the Advocate
General of the state saying, "Either government must itself
take a decision to dismantle these encroachments in the name
of temples else the court will not hesitate to dismantle all
such temples which are encroachments."
Advocate General G S Bapna submitted to the bench that
the state government has framed a policy to demolish all those
mosques and temples which are on roadside or are causing
traffic hazards.
PTI
