Supreme Court of India Banned Construction of Religious Structures and Statues on Public Land

The Supreme Court of India on 15 January 2013 passed an order that constructing religious structures such as the temples and shrines on the public land was banned. The bench of Justices R M Lodha and S J Mukhopadhaya, in its order declared that henceforth no state should grant permission for installation of any statue or erection of structures on the public utility places, pavements, public roads as well as the sideways.

The apex court passed an order to communicate to the Union Government of India as well as the State Governments to make sure that its order was strictly implemented. The SC called all such structures as unauthorised and ordered the state governments to find out about such constructions as well as file the status report in eight weeks.
 
The order of the Supreme Court came as the Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian informed that the Central Government and the State Governments had worked together on the agreement on 17 September 2012, to not permit such religious structures on the public land.

The order passed by the Supreme Court will now grant power to the government bodies and the municipal bodies from preventing unauthorised constructions.

Apart from the religious structures, the Apex Court’s order was also applicable on the installation of statues.