Hear­ing a pub­lic in­ter­est pe­ti­tion on Ja­gan­nath Puri Tem­ple ar­cade de­mo­li­tions, the di­vi­sion bench of Jus­tices Shri Arun Mishra, M. R. Shah and B. R. Gavai of the Supreme Court of In­dia granted two weeks to the Am­i­cus Ran­jit Ku­mar to file his re­port of the sta­tus about de­mo­li­tions in Puri, asked the gov­ern­ment of Odisha to take care of all stake­hold­ers and de­ferred the mat­ter to 3 Oc­to­ber 2019.  

HEAR­ING the plea (WP (C) No. 649/​2018) for seek­ing time, Jus­tice Arun Mishra asked the Ad­vo­cate Gen­eral of Odisha, Mr Ashok Par­ija to look into the griev­ances of all the stake­hold­ers be­fore ac­quir­ing land from them. Jus­tice Mishra also di­rected that the process must be car­ried out only in ac­cor­dance with the law, no mat­ter how no­ble the in­ten­tions of the State Gov­ern­ment of Odisha may be.

The in­ter­ven­ers In­ter-Con­ti­nen­tal As­so­ci­a­tion of Lawyers through its chair­man De­ba­sis Misra were rep­re­sented by se­nior Coun­sel Shri R. Venkatara­mani and Shri Sai Deepak of the In­dic Col­lec­tive. Shri Suvi Dutt is the ad­vo­cate on record for some of the Ma­hants.

In a state­ment is­sued in Puri, his­to­rian and con­ser­va­tion ac­tivist Anil Dhir has pointed out that “Ear­lier on, the Am­i­cus Cu­riae had sup­pos­edly given a clean chit to the de­mo­li­tions dur­ing his last visit to Puri. His press state­ment was used by the state and dis­trict ad­min­is­tra­tion as an ap­proval of the Supreme Court, while the fact is that the Am­i­cus has not even sub­mit­ted his re­port.”

Thought the Supreme Court of In­dia has been lag­gard in or­der­ing a stay on the de­mo­li­tions and has lit­er­ally presided over de­struc­tion of Hindu legacy and cul­ture of the re­gion, it is a lit­tle com­fort­ing that it has now di­rected the gov­ern­ment to act within the am­bit of law and with due con­sent of all stake­hold­ers.

Even the Shankaracharya had gone on record to say that he had protested be­fore the Am­i­cus.  The Shankaracharya, the Ma­hants and many other af­fected per­sons had pe­ti­tioned that they were not con­sulted.

How­ever, Anil Dhir has pointed out that, “what con­spired be­tween the Ga­jap­ati and the Am­i­cus is not known, as it was a closed-door af­fair.”

With the prompt ap­peal of his­to­rian Anil Dhir and lawyer-ac­tivist Sukhvin­der Kaur to the Odisha Chief Min­is­ter, the Sikh world has jumped into the ag­i­ta­tion protest­ing the pro­posed de­mo­li­tion of Mangu Mutt and the Pun­jabi Mutt and per­haps of the Bauli Sahib as well. The Chief Min­is­ter of Pun­jab tweeted and the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee met the Puri Col­lec­tor Bal­want Singh Rathore yes­ter­day and reg­is­tered the con­cerns of the Sikh com­mu­nity.

It is shock­ing to note that many other Hindu re­li­gious and his­tor­i­cal build­ings have been wan­tonly de­stroyed in the name of beau­ti­fi­ca­tion.  The de­struc­tion of the Emar Mutt, Lan­gudi Mutt and the Bada Akhada Mutt were con­ducted in a man­ner flout­ing many of the ex­ist­ing laws of the land be­sides in­ter­na­tional laws. In­dia is a sig­na­tory of the In­ter­na­tional Coun­cil on Mon­u­ments and Sites, UN­ESCO and In­ter­na­tional Coun­cil of Mu­se­ums.

For more than a week, the State Gov­ern­ment of Odisha has been bull­doz­ing its way through the price­less her­itage that sur­rounds the Ja­gan­nath Tem­ple at Puri. All in the name of de­vel­op­ment. cc:@in­dic­col­lec­tive pic.twit­ter.com/​Jet9K3YpRr

— Up­word (@up­word_) Sep­tem­ber 3, 2019

The man­ner in which the 900-year-old Emar Mutt, the 500-year-old Bada Akhada Mutt and the Lan­gudi Mutt have sur­prised and dis­turbed many her­itage lovers and ex­perts.

The Con­vener of IN­TACH’s Odisha Chap­ter, Amiya Bhu­san Tri­pa­thy has also sub­mit­ted a mem­o­ran­dum urg­ing con­serv­ing and restor­ing the old Mutts.

Thought the Supreme Court of In­dia has been lag­gard in or­der­ing a stay on the de­mo­li­tions and has lit­er­ally presided over the de­struc­tion of Hindu legacy and cul­ture of the re­gion, it is a lit­tle com­fort­ing that it has now di­rected the gov­ern­ment to act within the am­bit of law and with due con­sent of all stake­hold­ers.

WSN has many unan­swered ques­tions:

• Why has the Supreme Court not granted a stay and halted all de­mo­li­tions?
• What is pre­vent­ing the Odisha Chief Min­is­ter Naveen Pat­naik to is­sue a state­ment on the mat­ter?
• Are there vested build­ing and land mafia in­ter­ests be­hind the whole Odisha gov­ern­ment game of beau­ti­fi­ca­tion and ex­pan­sion?
• Who told Odisha Mem­ber Par­lia­ment Pinaki Misra that the Am­rit­sar model of de­vel­op­ment is the cor­rect model to fol­low?
• Why has the gov­ern­ment of Odisha not in­formed the Shankaracharya be­fore the pro­posal for de­mo­li­tion was taken up?
• Will the DS­GMC be­come an in­ter­venor in this pe­ti­tion or file an­other writ so that the Sikh her­itage of Puri is pro­tected and pre­served?
• Why is the Orissa Sikh Pra­tinidhi Board silent?