High court refuses to stay Shivaji Memorial work

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has refused to stay the work of the Shivaji memorial. The court was hearing a bunch of PILs opposing the construction of the memorial saying that issues such as drought, malnutrition and illiteracy needed to be resolved first.  

The interim order of the court comes after the state government said that it would recover the cost of construction from visitors to the memorial. The state also said that it had taken all necessary permissions from the Centre.

A division bench of Chief Justice N.H. Patil and Justice G.S. Kulkarni was hearing the petitions filed against the proposed statue of Shivaji in the Arabian Sea.

The petitioners criticised the government for spending `3,600 crore on the memorial even as the state was reeling under a drought-like situation and facing several more important issues that needed attention.

The court said, “We may observe that the decision to have a project of this nature is a policy decision taken by the state. We are sure that the state government has given appropriate consideration to all the financial issues before taking a policy decision to undertake the project in question.”

From the government's affidavit, it was clear that proper financial provision had been made and normal expenditure, incurred by the state government on other requirements, would not be affected, the order said.

“Also, the state government is considering a scheme which would be worked out to recoup the cost of the project which may include fees which would be charged from the visitors,” the court said.

The court further added that the priorities of public needs were matters that lay completely in the state government’s domain.