HC asks SGNP panel to decide if one artificial pond at Aarey adequate for idol immersion
A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif S Doctor was hearing an application by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) regional secretary against the non-granting of permission for immersion of Ganesh idols in Aarey colony lake during the ongoing festival.
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Fifth day of Ganesh immersion in the Arabian Sea at Juhu Beach in Mumbai. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)
Maintaining that its “endeavour is not to hurt religious feelings”, but to protect natural surroundings, the Bombay High Court Monday asked the Monitoring Committee of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) to take a decision on whether one artificial pond at Aarey Colony will be adequate for immersion of Ganpati idols during the ongoing Ganesh festival.
A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif S Doctor was hearing an application by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) regional secretary against the non-granting of permission for immersion of Ganesh idols in Aarey colony lake during the ongoing festival.
VHP Regional Secretary Rajiv Chaubey, through senior advocate Anil Singh, sought that immersion be permitted at the lake at least this year.
“All these are matters to be considered by experts. What would suffice, whether it is one artificial pond or six or one truck-mounted tank or 10 is up to the monitoring committee. We will ask the committee to consider and take appropriate decision. If it is adequate then fine and if not, then we are only saying that arrangements can be made. The endeavour is to not hurt anybody’s religious feeling but also protect natural surroundings,” CJ Upadhyaya said.
The bench, on September 12, while hearing a PIL by NGO Vanashakti seeking prevention of immersion of idols in the natural lakes in Aarey Colony, had directed the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) and other authorities to make adequate arrangements for safe immersion of Ganesh idols across Mumbai and suburbs as per the guidelines laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2020 and directives of the Union Environment Ministry.
The BMC had said immersion of idols will not be allowed by the municipal authorities in the lakes at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), unless the CEO of Aarey Colony grants due permission.
Thereafter, the chief executive officer of Aarey Colony had told the HC that no permission shall be granted for the immersion of Ganesh idols in the colony lake.
On Monday, senior advocate Singh told the bench that the monitoring committee had a meeting and had decided to set up one artificial pond inside Aarey colony area and immersions have been done therein since last Wednesday.
Senior advocate Milind Sathe for the BMC submitted that it has provided six truck-mounted tanks for immersion.
However, Singh said that one artificial pond was not enough considering the number of idols brought for immersion.
He said that apart from permission to immerse the idols in lakes, seven artificial ponds were set up last year.
However, he added that for this year, the applicant was not seeking permission to immerse idols in the lakes but only seeking additional artificial ponds.
The bench then asked the monitoring committee to convene a meeting and see if more arrangements could be made for immersion in artificial ponds.
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