Lucknow, February 10: The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Mayawati government to remove the construction material and clean the premises of Dalit memorials in Lucknow, but issued strict orders against carrying out masonry work on the structures.
Construction at the memorial sites had come to a halt after the apex court in September 2009 took suo motu cognizance of news reports that the work was going on in violation of an earlier Supreme Court stay order. The ban was re-imposed and a contempt notice issued to the then Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh.
A Division Bench of Justices H S Bedi and A K Patnaik on Tuesday permitted the government to recommence the maintenance of the work, including removal of unused construction material and debris, planting and watering of grass and trees and mending of leaking water pipes at three sites — Kanshiram Smarak Sthal, Ramabai Ambedkar Maidan and Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Sthal.
Earlier, the Bench had asked state Acting Chief Secretary V K Sharma to apprise it through an affidavit on the various works that the government wanted to undertake at various memorial sites.
With this, the court made it clear that it does not fully agree with the list of works earlier submitted by V K Sharma in an affidavit.
“We have perused the list of the works that need to be done at different project sites,” said the Bench, adding that “it, however, is not inclined to permit the state government to carry out all the works mentioned in the list”.
While allowing minor maintenance jobs, the Bench transferred all lawsuits opposing and supporting the construction of the memorials to the Allahabad High Court.
The Bench asked the High Court to form a special bench to resolve the issue, preferably within four months after its reconstitution.
The Bench also absolved former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta of the charges of showing contempt to court by allegedly allowing the government machinery to continue with the construction work at various memorial sites, which had been halted by a Bench of erstwhile Justice B N Agrawal last year on September 8.
—-Agencies