Soni Satti
Supreme Court ordered that the petition for Ram Sethu’s National Heritage Status be heard on April 26th before the “next CJI,” NV Ramana, who will take over as Chief Justice of India on April 24th.
Supreme Court divisional bench comprising CJI Bobde, Justice Bopanna, and Justice Ramasubramanian issued the order after Rajya Sabha MP.
Dr. Subramanian Swamy requested an immediate hearing of his appeal for directions to the Centre to declare Ram Sethu as a national heritage monument.
Chief Justice Bobde stated,
“Mr. Swamy, I don’t think I’ve time to hear this. This will take some time. We will list it before some Bench which can deal with it” .
He added “Let the next CJI deal with it’’.
Dr. Swamy raised the issue of naming Ram Sethu a National Heritage Monument in his petition against the Sethusamudram Ship Channel project for the preservation of Ram Sethu, and the Supreme Court granted a stay on the project’s work over Ram Sethu.
In January 2020, the Supreme Court stated that it will accept Dr. Swamy’s Ram Sethu petition, but for that, he should approach the Court and file it after three months due to the court’s backlog of litigation.
However, the case could not be listed until three months because, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, the Supreme Court began hearing urgent matters only through video conferencing.
Supreme Court Bench ordered that the matter be heard on April 26th, in response to Dr Swamy’s request for a date.