Cuttack, May 7: Orissa High Court today rejected pleas seeking review of its order for demolition of unauthorised religious structures here.
The district administration, which had suspended the exercise, will resume operation tomorrow.
The division bench of Justice M.M. Das and Justice Indrajit Mahanty dismissed two review petitions, ruling that the petitioners did not raise any ground for review while making the state government’s policy to deal with unauthorised constructions of religious nature the main issue of the petitions.
“As finding or order has not been challenged and no error has been cited, there is no cause of action for a review,” said the bench. The court order came on the review petitions of a group of people based at Markat Nagar, developed by the Cuttack Development Authority. The petitioners had sought regularisation of lands on which unauthorised structures of religious nature had allegedly been undertaken.
On January 6, 2011, the court ordered: “The religious institutions, which have been constructed after 1987, and do not find mention in the Record of Rights (RoRs) of 1987, and have been constructed over government lands without permission from competent authorities, and cannot be regularised, should be demolished.”
Appearing on behalf of the state government, advocate general Ashok Mohanty said encroachments in the form of unauthorised religious constructions, identified for eviction, particularly those on the riverbed “cannot be regularised”.
Around 164 religious structures in the Cuttack Municipal Corporation area were identified for demolition as they had encroached on government land. “The state government is under constitutional obligation to implement the court order to demolish the unauthorised religious structures as the order has neither been set aside nor stayed by any court,” Mohanty said.
The advocate general said the state government had framed a policy for preventing unauthorised constructions of religious structures on roads, parks and other public places. The policy was framed in pursuance of an order issued to all states and Union territories by the Supreme Court on September 29, 2009.
The policy specifies that an encroachment that does not cause traffic hazards, public nuisance or inconvenience to the public at large or where the land is not required for any public purpose may be regularised for payment of such premium as may be decided by the government.
The petitioners had sought regularisation by claiming the September 29, 2009 Supreme Court order as a cut-off date to deal with the unauthorised constructions.
The court, however, refused to accept any arguments trying to use the Supreme Court order as a cut-off date for regularisation of the encroachments.