NEW DELHI, Aug 12: It seems ironic that with the nation observing five decades of freedom and incidentally three more days to go before Independence Day the Union Government is still shackled on whether or not to remove the India Gate canopy that housed a King George V statue to accommodate on of the Father of the Nation.The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre to take early decision on installation of Mahatma Gandhi's statue at India Gate and made it clear that court's interim order of last year would not come in the way.A division bench of Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice K S Gupta while hearing a writ petition by the All India Freedom Fighters' Organisation (AIFFO) said the Centre was free to take a decision for installing the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at August Kranti park in India Gate.Referring to a letter written to the Cabinet Secretary on Monday by the Department of Urban Development recommending placing of the matter before the Cabinet, the court expressed the hope that the Cabinet wouldtake some decision on the issue in its next meeting.The bench made it clear that pendency of the case should not be an impediment as the court in its interim order issuing certain guidelines to the government and the parties to the dispute had not barred the government from taking any decision in this regard.AIFFO counsel D S Adel said it was unfortunate that the government had not been able to take a positive decision on installing the statue of the Father of the Nation in the Capital, while Britain and Russia had already installed his statues at their respective capitals.The Conservation Society of Delhi and Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage (INTACH) had opposed the removal of India Gate canopy, where the statue was proposed to be installed by the government.The conservation society and INTACH in their intervention pleas contended that they were not opposing the installation of the statue, but were against the removal of the canopy or any alteration in its present structure asit is a monument of historical importance.On the other hand AIFFO had pleaded for removal of the canopy, if the statue was to be installed underneath, saying the canopy was a symbol of British rule.The canopy housed the statue of King George-V, installed by some of the Indian princes in 1936 in retaliation to Gandhi's Dandi March and satyagraha movement with a view to appease their British masters, the AIFFO in its petition had said.Adel said the correspondence between the prime minister office and the chairman of AIFFO gave an impression that the government was shy of taking any decision on the ground that the matter was ``sub-judice''.Government counsel A K Vali said since the matter has been referred to the Cabinet Secretary, it was now up to the Cabinet to take a decision.The proposal for removal of the canopy or installing the statue underneath had raised a debate between the freedom fighters and the conservationists outside the court also as both the parties were putting their viewpointsbefore the people by organising seminars and distributing printed materials.
