by- Safia Jabeen Parveen
The Supreme Court received a petition seeking to recognize Ram Sethu as a national heritage. The petition was filed by the BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
A bench composed of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli had a view of the submissions of Swamy’s petition that it was an urgent and small matter needed to be listed for hearing.
On this, the CJI(Chief Justice of India) told Swamy to let it be listed after his retirement.
The CJI then listed its hearing at apex court on July 26.
The BJP leader had made it clear that he already won the first round of the litigation in which the Union government accepted the existence of Ram Sethu.
Facts to be known regarding Ram-Sethu:
Ram Sethu, also known as Adam’s bridge, is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban or Rameswaram Island off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu and Mannar Island on the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.
The petition was filed against the controversial Sethusamudram Ship Canal project, which will pass through the shoals on Ram Sethu. The project had faced protests from some political parties, environmentalists and certain Hindu religious groups.
A 83-kilometre-long deep water channel was to be created, linking Mannar with Palk Strait, by extensive dredging and removal of the limestone shoals.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, in an affidavit filed in September 2019, had told a bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra that it considered the “socio-economic disadvantages” of the project and was willing to explore an alternative route to the shipping channel project without damaging Ram Sethu.
It is the belief of millions of Hindus that the Ram Sethu was built by Lord Ram with help from an army of monkeys, to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana, described in the epic Ramayana.
Source: PTI
