SC won’t stay Guj HC order for compensation to riot-damaged shrines
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- Current News
- Wednesday, 04 July 2012 15:47
- Published on Wednesday, 04 July 2012 15:47
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Gujarat Global News Network, New Delhi
The Supreme Court has declined to stay the Gujarat High Court order directing the State government to pay compensation to more than 500 shrines damaged during the 2002 riots.
Additional Advocate-General Tushar Mehta and counsel Hemantika Wahi, appearing for the Gujarat government had asked the SC to stay the February 8 order by the Gujarat HC arguing that under the Constitution, there could not be funding of religious bodies by any government.
Declining to stay the HC order, a bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra asked the state government to furnish details of the number of religious structures actually damaged and the financial cost of their reconstruction.
The Bench adjourned the hearing to enable the government to produce documents that might indicate “… which are the religious places affected by the communal riots, for which compensation has been claimed.” The next hearing has been kept for July 9, when the plea for stay would be considered.
On Feb. 8 this year, a bench of acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice JB Pardiwala, acting a petition filed by the Gujarat Islamic Relief Committee, had has asked the Narendra Modi government to fix compensation in six months for religious places damaged during the 2002 riots. The court pulled up the Modi government for inaction during the riots.
The Gujarat government had opposed the petition stating that it violated Article 27 of the Constitution and further stated that there was no with regards to compensation for restoration/repair of religious places damaged or destroyed during the riots.
But the court observed that when the state pays compensation for houses and commercial building damaged, why it cannot pay compensation for religious places damaged in the riots. The court has ordered that principal judges of all 26 districts of the state to receive the applications for compensation of religious structures in their respective districts and decide on it.
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