Debangana Ray
Published on July 26, 2022 at 22:00 IST
The Supreme Court on Monday stayed proceedings before Patna High Court in a PIL in which the High Court had asked the Bihar government to bring in a “special legislation” to turn the entire 32-acre campus of Bihar Vidyapith in the state capital into a national monument.
A Bench of Justices S A Nazeer and J K Maheshwari stayed the proceedings on a plea by the Vidyapith Society, which challenged the High Court order as “erroneous” and “in breach of settled principles”.
The Vidyapith Society pointed out in its plea filed through Advocate Fouzia Shakil that the 32 acres included two houses in which Prasad had lived during his lifetime, and that these were converted as private museums in his memory.
The High Court’s intervention began after a 2021 PIL urged it to intervene in maintaining the “pitiable condition” of Prasad’s memorial at Ziradei village in Bihar’s Siwan district.
The case then expanded to include “two other historically significant properties” in Patna that are “also ill-maintained” – Prasad’s “last abode” Sadakat Ashram and Bans Ghat, “where his mortal remains were assigned to fire”.
The HC invokes “constitutional obligation” to preserve cultural heritage, the Court cited the Convention On Protection Of The World Cultural And Natural Heritage and UNESCO Declaration Concerning The International Destruction Of Cultural Heritage as the basis to bring in a law to acquire the premises.
It issued a notice to the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to submit a report on the status of the museums on the campus.
The High Court order stated that “after interacting with Janhwij Sharma, ADG (Conservation) at ASI headquarters, Delhi, on April 20, the court was of the firm view that for purposes of proper management and control of all three places, i.e. two museums at Bihar Vidyapith, Sadakat Ashram, and Bans Ghat having historical value and importance, perhaps the government was required to take certain measures, one of them being bringing out special legislation.”
The property, the court said, “cannot be managed by [a] few, howsoever well-intentioned their thoughts and actions may be”.
Appearing for the Society, Senior Advocate Shyam Diwan said the two museums were located only on approximately 2 acres in the 32-acre campus.
It was also mentioned that, “Besides, there were about 12 institutions running from the campus of this private society, which included B.Ed colleges, school, hostel, entrepreneurship centre and library among others and more than 2,000 students and various staff will be affected by the High Court order.”.
The High Court, argued Diwan, was wrong in directing the relocation of all of these educational institutions away from the two museums. The Supreme Court has now asked the parties to maintain status quo.
