Mumbai, Aug 25: Taking a serious note of repeated "failures" of Maharashtra government to file an affidavit on its policy of demolition of illegal shrines, the Mumbai High Court has imposed costs of Rs 1,000 on the state and directed the local civic body to file a detailed reply in this regard. The costs were imposed by Justice S F Vajifdar on August 13 on a public interest litigation filed by Jan Hit Manch and social worker Bhagwanji Rayani that challenged mushrooming of illegal religious shrines all over the city.
The judge ordered the state government to pay the costs within two weeks and noted that an appropriate order would be passed at an appropriate stage regarding the said amount. The PIL has been adjourned to September 10.
The court noted that inspite of giving several chances, no affidavit was filed by the state. On March 19, the court had asked the state government to file an affidavit stating its policy of demolition of illegal shrines. On July nine, a last opportunity was offered to the state to file its reply. But the affidavit has not been filed yet.
The court also observed that the affidavit filed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is not complete. The affidavit said there are 854 such shrines in the city. However, only in four cases, action had been taken and the illegal shrines were demolished. Action is pending against 12 other shrines.
The court noted that substantial part of the issue of demolition of illegal shrines has not been dealt at all by the BMC.
Bureau Report