Cultural rights are part of Constitution

New Delhi: Holding of religious and cultural events cannot be banned or stopped as these form part of the ‘Right To Live With Dignity’ guaranteed by the Constitution, the National Green Tribunal was told on Monday. 

The argument that such events, as the cultural extravaganza held last year by spiritual guru SRi Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living, were guaranteed under Article 21 of Constitution on protection of life and personal liberty was advanced by some petitioners in support of the AoL event who were impeded by the NGT in the case last year.

The petitioners contended it was their right to organise and participate in events such as Kumbh, Chhath or the AOL’s event subject to reasonable restriction and environmental concerns.

“It is submitted that power to interpret provisions of the Constitution only rests with Supreme Court or various high courts. It is submitted that NGT Act, 2010 does not empower this tribunal with the writ jurisdiction power of the high courts and thus the NGT is not competent to interpret the Constitution” the plea claimed.

The petition was moved by Prajanya Chowdhry, Anil Kapoor and Anand Mathur has challenged the green panel’s jurisdiction to decide on the issue of damage to Yamuna floodplains caused by the holding of AOL cultural festival in March last year.

Advocate A. Sharma, who appeared for the petitioners, said the Constitution allows individuals to hold and participate in events such as World Culture Festival and any would deny them such rights. The plea was filed through advocates Piyush Singh and Nitesh Ranjan. The matter is now listed for hearing on November 2.

In the last hearing, the AOL raised doubts over the satellite images used by the experts committee headed by Shashi Shekhar, secretary of the ministry of water resources, to estimate the damage.

Earlier, the expert committee had told the NGT that a whopping Rs 42.02 crore would be required to restore Yamuna floodplains which was ravaged due to the AoL cultural extravaganza. 

The panel, while submitting its report on July 28 last year, has relied on a single Google satellite image of September 15, 2015. 

There were many Google images available between 2000-2015, but the committee chose only one image out of several. “There were heavy rains at the site then and selection of of only one image to ascertain the damage is questionable,” the AOL counsel claimed.