The Supreme Court has issued notice in a plea filed against the National Green Tribunal’s order closing commercial activities, including the light and sound show and eateries, at the Nahargarh Fort, near Jaipur from December 1.
The bench of Justice Abdul Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari heard the plea filed by the Secretary of Department Of Archaeology and Museums, State of Rajasthan said the bench is issuing notice only to monitor their activities.
During the proceedings, Justice Abdul Nazeer, the presiding judge of the bench, inquired as to why the activities which are non-forest activities are being conducted in forest areas.
Senior Advocate Manish Singhvi, appearing on behalf of Department of Archaeology and Museums, submitted that without restaurants or any eateries in the place, tourists will have nothing to eat when they visit the monument. All the places with some historical importance had some or the other activities for refreshment. In fact there were restaurants which were run by the state itself for the past 30 years.
To this, Justice Nazeer said they have no idea how long those restaurants have been there or how old they are, some exceptions must be there as it’s not some mining or construction of some fresh building.
The bench asked Singhvi to stop the light and sound show, as there should not be light and sound in forest areas. Singhvi offered to reduce the intensity of the light and sound show conducted at the fort.
The bench denied the request and asked them to stop the light and sound show completely since their existence is in question itself. The judges asked what was the whole point of the light and sound show?
When the counsel said it was only showcasing the area’s history, the bench said the show must be stopped. The bench then wondered the area should not have liquor or beer but you are serving it in the forest area. The bench then went ahead and issued notice returnable in 8 weeks.
The NGT bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, S.K. Singh, S. Agarwal, Brijesh Sethi, Dr. Nagin Nanda, Arun Kumar had passed the verdict stopping commercial activities in the Nahargarh Fort on environmentalist Rajendra Tiwari’s plea. The plea said Nahargarh area was declared reserved forest land and came under the purview of the Centre but commercial activities including restaurants, wax museum, light and sound show were being operated under the Archaeology and Museum department of the state government.
In an order dated October 4, 2021, the bench had directed Rajasthan government to shut down restaurants operating in the notified area of Nahargarh Wildlife Sanctuary/Fort from December 1, saying no non-forest activity can be allowed without the Centre’s approval.