‘No religion says pray in illegal shrine’

The Bombay high court, while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by an NGO against illegal shrines, observed, “No religion encourages its followers to offer prayers in illegal shrines which are constructed on public properties, and we are sure that no religious sect and their leaders will oppose demolition process of illegal shrines. Therefore, raze all illegal shrines in the state.”

The court further said that as per the Indian Constitution, citizens had the right to proper roads and footpaths to walk on and if any hurdle came between these roads and footpaths, it was the duty of the state government to remove those hurdles.

The court on Saturday even directed the state government to initiate criminal proceedings against persons who obstructed the demolition of illegal shrines. The court further directed that if local bodies found anybody illegally constructing shrines on government land, the state would have to take action against such people under provisions of the MRTP Act, Maharashtra Police Act and Defacement of Public Property Act. The court also directed the state to submit its first action taken report at the end of November 2016.

A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice A.A. Sayed was hearing the PIL filed by ‘Society for Fast Justice’, an NGO. It sought implementation of a 2009 apex court order which said that the state must demolish or regularise illegal shrines. The state government till 2011 did not act on the Supreme Court order. It issued a resolution stating that razing of illegal structure was the responsibility of civic commissioner and district collector. The order also asked police commissioners and superintendents of police to give protection to demolition staff but no illegal shrines were razed till 2015. In November 2015, the state issued a new resolution and ordered commissioners and collectors to complete the demolition drive before August 17, 2016.

The state also submitted time-bound demolition programme in the court and bifurcated shrines before and after September 21, 2009.

Earlier while hearing the case, the court came to know that the state government had counted only those illegal structures that were constructed on roads and footpaths.

Therefore, the court directed the government to identify and segregate all those structures that were on public places like grounds, parks and lands of government authorities including MMRDA, MHADA, CIDCO, MIDC and BMC. The court directed the state to complete this procedure by March 2017.