The Hindu : New Delhi News : `No construction near Jantar Mantar'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

`No construction near Jantar Mantar'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 23. Setting aside a Single-Judge Bench judgment that the historic Jantar Mantar observatory here was not a protected monument, a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court today barred a private property owner from constructing a building within 100 metres of the 18th Century monument.

Upholding a Union Government notification of 1992 prohibiting raising of new structures within 100 metres of protected monuments, the Division Bench comprising Justice B.C. Patel and Justice B.D. Ahmed, however, directed the Government to review the notification to make its application flexible so that there could be a balance between the needs for protecting historical monuments and development.

Justice K.S. Gupta of the High Court had in 2002 allowed Narender Anand, owner of plot No. 14 on Janpath Lane, to go ahead with construction of the building on it, holding that Jantar Mantar was not a protected monument as per the notification of the Union Government, as the latter failed to file a copy of the preliminary notification in the Court. Mr. Anand had filed a suit in the High Court seeking a direction to the effect that he should not be disturbed from constructing the building as he had taken permission from all the government bodies concerned. Following a restraint by Mr. Justice Gupta on the government bodies from interfering in the on-going construction, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) filed a petition for vacation of the stay, submitting that the property owner had made a wrong submission as he had not taken its permission.

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