STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: A Division Bench (DB) of J&K State High Court comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Tashi Rabstan on Wednesday directed the petitioners of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), seeking declaration of Dewan Mandir Complex as a protected monument, to approach the government.
The PIL was filed by president and two Executive Committee members of Dewan Mandir Society seeking declaration of temple as Protected Monument.
The DB after hearing both the sides observed that before filing this petition, the petitioners haven’t approached the government.
“Section 3 of J&K Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1977 contemplates that the government is the competent authority to declare any structure as protected monument within the meaning of the Act and it is a well settled proposition of law that before seeking writ of mandamus, there must be a demand and on non-consideration of the demand, writ of mandamus can be filed,” the Court observed and dismissed the writ petition.
“If the petitioners have any interest in seeking declaration of the Dewan Mandir as protected monument, they are at liberty to approach the government,” the court observed.
In the PIL, it was submitted that Dewan Mandir is an ancient temple which had been constructed in 1897 by one Dewan Jawala and deities of Laxmi Narayan were installed there. The temple has huge property spread over kanals of land. It has 70 shops with each costing about Rs 25 lakh.
The temple was given to Dewan Jawala and pujaris were appointed for the maintenance of temple. The temple has its own history and has been discussed in various books, but at present the temple property is being damaged and some part of it is being encroached and a portion of temple property has been converted into parking by Jammu Development Authority (JDA).
The petitioners alleged that Jammu Municipal Corporation and JDA don’t do any maintenance of the temple property. The Deputy Commissioner has also been approached many times but nothing has been done so far for the maintenance of the temple property, the petitioners said, while seeking declaration of temple as Protected Monument under Section 3 of the Ancient Monument Act, 1904.