The Centre was granted more time
by the Supreme Court to decide whether the mythological Ram Setu could
be declared a national monument.
Appearing
before a bench headed by Justice H L Dattu on Thursday, Additional
Solicitor General (ASG) Haren Raval submitted that consultation was
needed on the issue with the competent authority and sought more time to
file an affidavit on it.
"Take
a decision whether or not to", the bench said, while granting the
government two weeks time to take a decision. The bench then posted the
matter for further hearing on 19th April.
The
bench was hearing a petition filed by Janata Party President
Subramanian Swamy seeking the court's direction to declare Ram Setu a
national monument.
Earlier, the bench had on 27th March directed the government to file an affidavit regarding its decision within two days.
"If you say you don't want to file counter affidavit, we can go ahead with the arguments in the case," the bench had said.
The
case relating to Ram Setu came under judicial scrutiny after a batch of
petitions were filed in the apex court challenging the ambitious
Sethusamudram project, which was alleged to cause damage to the
mythological bridge.
Sethusamudram project is aimed at constructing a shorter navigational route around India's
southern tip by breaching the mythological Ram Setu, said to have been
built by Lord Rama's army of monkeys and bears to the demon king
Ravana's kingdom Lanka.
As per the Sethusamudram project, the shipping channel is proposed to be 30 metres wide, 12 metres deep and 167 kms long.
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