SC seeks details of shrines destroyed in 2002 riots
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- Current News
- Monday, 09 July 2012 14:11
- Published on Monday, 09 July 2012 14:11
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Gujarat Global News Network, New Delhi
The SC has asked the Gujarat Government to file a survey report of the shrines which were damaged and destroyed during the 2002 riots. The SC has also asked the state government to quantify the amount needed for building and repairing these sites.
A bench of justice KS Radhakrishnan and justice Dipak Misra was hearing the appeal filed by the Gujarat government challenging a Gujarat high court order directing it to pay compensation for damage and destruction of the religious sites.
The Gujarat government has opposed any compensation plan stating that the state exchequer could not be used for building and repairing religious sites. But the SC bench said it would look into the issue whether public funds could be used for restoring the damaged sites.
"You compensate if a house is washed away in a flood or if it is damaged in an earthquake. Then why not in case of a religious place?" the bench asked.
On Feb. 8 this year, a Gujarat HC Â 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 had also 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 provision 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. The Gujarat government had then challenged the HC order in the SC.
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