Consider supervision of Mehrauli monuments: SC to ASI

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to consider undertaking the supervision of monuments inside Delhi’s Mehrauli Archaeological Park, including the 13th century Ashiq Allah Dargah and Chillagah of Baba Farid, the revered Sufi saint.

While hearing petitions seeking directions to authorities to desist from demolishing or removing the dargah and other surrounding historical monuments in Mehrauli or Sanjay Van, a Bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan pointed out that it had on February 28 ordered that no constructions, additions or alterations in the existing structures in the area can take place without its permission.

“Why do you want to demolish it in the first place?” it asked the Delhi Development Authority counsel.

The DDA’s counsel said the authority was not against the dargah but there were several other unauthorised structures that had come up in the vicinity.

“The question which really arises is, how much of it is the protected monument and how much of it is the encroachment,” the counsel said.

No further constructions should be carried out, it stressed on preservation of the monument, it said.

“That monument has to be preserved. We are only concerned with the monument,” the bench said.

Referring to the ASI’s status report, the appellants argued though the structures might not have been treated as centrally protected monuments, the ASI could supervise their repair and maintenance.

The DDA’s counsel contended the authority was concerned only with demolition of unauthorised structures encroaching public land in terms of the orders passed by the top court.

The Bench disposed of the appeals by observing that the ASI should take under its consideration the supervision of the monuments in question in the matter of repair, renovation.

One of the appellants sought protection of the religious structures inside the archaeological park from demolition.

The ASI previously said the two structures inside the archaeological park bore religious significance as Muslim devotees paid daily visits to the shrines.

An inscription, the ASI said, on the tomb of Shaikh Shahibuddin says it was constructed in the year 1,317 AD. The ASI said the tomb was close to the citadel of Prithviraj Chauhan and fell within the regulated zone of 200 metre according to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act.

Any repair, renovation or construction work required a prior permission of the competent authority, it added.