The Supreme Court of India was informed by the Central government that declaring Ram Setu as a national heritage monument is currently underway in the ministry of Culture.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala have given permission to the BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, for filing representation to the Ministry on the issue along with seeking direction to the government for declaring ‘Ram Setu’ as a national monument.
The Apex court has said that the Ministry will inform the court about the decision taken by the Centre.
The order of the Apex court came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the process in Ministry of Culture is currently underway.
The SG said that Swamy may submit additional communication if he may so wish.
The CJI gave Swamy the option to meet the concerned person, but he refused to meet anyone. He said he would not want to meet anybody if they do not want to.
He added that they are in same party and it was there in their manifesto. He said let them decide in six weeks or four weeks…”
The plea was then disposed by the bench which granted liberty to Swamy for approach the top court if he is aggrieved by the decision of the Ministry.
In an earlier conversation,Swamy had earlier said that the case was pending for the last eight years but the government was not responding to its plea.
In his plea, Swamy had urged the Top court for passing an order and directing the Union of India along with National Monuments Authority (NMA) to declare Ram Setu as an Ancient Monument of National Importance.
He had also requested Union of India for engaging the Geological Survey of India and Archeological Survey of India to conduct a detailed survey with respect to Ram Setu as an Ancient Monument of National Importance.
Swamy said that he has already won the first round of the litigation in which the Centre accepted the existence of ‘Ram Setu’ and added that the union minister concerned had called a meeting in 2017 to consider his demand to declare the Setu as a national heritage monument but subsequently nothing happened.
Ram Setu is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.