By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Monday refused to entertain former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalitha’s plea to declare as a national monument the Adam’s Bridge, a chain of shoals located off the Tamil Nadu coast. It was a structure that nobody has seen and was under water, the apex court said.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan told the AIADMK supremo to “approach the appropriate authority” – the Archaeological Survey of India – for the purpose.
“You are asking for a structure to be declared as a national monument which nobody has seen and which is under water,” the bench, which also included Justices Tarun Chatterjee and R.V. Raveendran, told senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for Jayalalitha.
The Adam’s Bridge, a chain of limestone shoals 48 km long that once linked Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu with Mannar in Sri Lanka’s northwest, is also known as Ram Setu. Many Hindus hold belief that it was the bridge Lord Ram’s army built to cross over to Lanka to rescue his wife, Sita.
The bridge faces some damage due to the dredging for the ambitious Setu Samudram canal project to create a navigable waterway between India’s southern tip and Sri Lanka.
The apex court also expressed exasperation over the mushrooming growth of litigants approaching it over the Ram Setu and the damage it faces due to the canal work.
“How many cases will be filed against this project?” the bench asked.
As the court appeared inclined to dismiss the plea, Venugopal sought its permission to amend his demands in the petition and press only for seeking a direction to build the canal without damaging the Ram Setu.
The bench tagged the petition for hearing along with other petitions, including one by former union minister Subramaniam Swamy and Chennai-based Hindu Munnani president Rama Gopalan.