New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on October 27 the Uttar Pradesh government’s application seeking recall of the Tuesday’s order to demolish a parking lot surrounding the world heritage monument Taj Mahal in Agra.
A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta agreed to list the matter on Friday on a “mention” made by additional advocate-general Aishwarya Bhati, who sought urgent hearing of the restoration application.
“We have suffered an order of demolition of the multi-level car parking. We are praying for urgent listing of the restoration application,” advocate Bhati told the bench.
The counsel contended that the state’s advocate could not appear before the court yesterday when the matter was called up for hearing before a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur, due to which the demolition order was passed.
On Tuesday, the court passed an interim order for demolition of the parking lot on an application from environmentalist M.C. Mehta, who alleged that the Uttar Pradesh government had not obtained necessary environmental clearances for the project. During the last hearing, the apex court pulled up the state and the Central government for seeking its permission to cut over 400 trees.
