'Ensure no place of worship in public places'

Updated on Friday, July 31, 2009, 14:39 IST
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to ensure that no place of worship is constructed in public places.
The apex court asked Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium to file an affidavit in this regard within four weeks. "The Solicitor General will file an affidavit to ensure that no temple, church, mosque or gurudwara is constructed on a public street or a public space," a Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and M K Sharma said. The direction to the Centre came during the hearing of the petition challenging the Gujarat High Court order of 2006 by which the authorities in Ahmedabad were directed to demolish all illegal structures including places of worship on public roads. The High Court order was later stayed by the apex court. During the hearing, the Bench said as far as existing religious institutions are concerned it can understand that demolishing them will create law and order problem but the Centre must ensure that no religious places comes up in future in public places. The Bench said even if a single institution is put up on public place, the officers concerned would be suitably punished. Subramanium said that the Centre will have discussions with all states and try to reach a consensus on this issue. The Bench posted the matter for further hearing on September 29. Bureau Report

This is a reasonable order by the SC. This should also apply to building of memorials of political leaders in public places. Except for Mahatma Gandhi's memorial in the capital, because the Mahatma was unique, all the other memorials, including those of the Nehru family and former PMs should be shifted to a common memorial at a single place and existing memorial sites should be converted to places of public utility.

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