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The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday a petition which seeks to restrain the Odisha government from carrying out excavation and construction in and around the Lord Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha, amid concerns over its structural safety.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Hima Kohli agreed to take up the plea, which has challenged the Orissa High Court’s May 9 order refusing to restrain the state, after the appellant Sumanta Kumar Ghadei, a social activist and businessman, sought its urgent listing.
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The plea stated it is being filed “in the interest of the general public and to protect the heritage of Lord Shree Jagannath”.
Represented by advocate Gautam Das, Ghadei has told the court the ongoing excavation and construction as part of the Jagannath Temple Corridor Project “is in gross violation of section 20A of The Ancient Monuments and Archeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASR), 1958”.
Section 20A of AMASR Act “is clear about the fact that there cannot be any construction within the 100 m distance of the prohibited area…of the monument”, the petition said.
However, it pointed out, the state is trying to do some construction “adjacent to the western side of what is called the Meghanand Pacheri, an integral part of the temple”.
The plea has raised fears that heavy earth-moving equipment digging “as much as 30 feet into the earth” is putting pressure on the temple’s basement/ foundation. It added that though there are damages to the structure of the temple, photographs of the same cannot be produced as authorities have banned use of mobile phones and all other forms of photography.
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