Taking a serious view of the inaction of the states to remove unauthorised religious constructions, the Supreme Court on Tuesday warned them of summoning the chief secretaries if they failed to respond in two weeks.
A bench of Justices V. Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra hearing an appeal relating to unauthorised religious constructions like temples, mosques and churches, expressed its anguish and observed “Construction of temples and mosques near drains and kiosks selling tobacco products is an insult to God. This is not due to faith but because people want to make money. The states must remove them. Everyone has the right to walk. God never intended to obstruct the path meant for the people. Why shouldn’t these structures go ”
The bench faulted the states for not filing an affidavit in compliance of its March 8 order seeking details of how many illegal religious constructions have been removed. “Do we give our orders to be kept in cold storage. Your chief secretaries do not respect our orders. We will show them what we can do for not obeying,” it said.
It ordered personal presence of chief secretaries of 29 states and 7 union territories if they fail to submit the information within two weeks.
“This attitude of the state administration is not correct. Let the chief secretaries come to the court. You bother only when we call them to the court.”
