High Court notice to govt on preserving Sangrur club

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 5

Acting on two petitions for preserving and protecting “heritage” Maharaja Ranbir Club (Skating Rink) in Sangrur, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday put the state, Sangrur DC, Municipal Council and other respondents on notice.

As the case came up for hearing, the Division Bench of Justice Mahesh Grover and Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu verbally asked the state and its functionaries not to permit any illegal construction at the site.

The observation came even as the Bench was told by caveator — Sangrur DC — that the site did not fall in the category of “protected”. The Bench observed that the site, an ancient monument, was required to be preserved.

Referring to a report carried in these columns on the district administration’s plan to open a liquor bar in the club built in 1890, the INTACH, Jasinder Sekhon and other petitioners through counsel Harmanjit Singh Sethi sought court’s intervention to save “the site from being destroyed by creating third party rights and by throwing all norms to the wind”.

Appearing before the Bench for the petitioners, former Union Minister Manish Tewari, Sethi and Manpreet Sawhney asserted they came to know about the creation of third party interest vide the newspaper report dated June 27.

The petitioners said the act of opening a bar and restaurant at the heritage site had resulted in endangering the club. “The opening of bar and restaurant on a government site caught the attention of the Leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha on the basis of news item appearing in newspapers. The LoP wrote to the Local Bodies Minister on August 28. But the state government as well as the DC failed to bring an end to the illegality,” it was added.

The entire process was being carried out without the government or Sangrur MC’s permission in violation of a notification dated May 17, 1950.

The petitioners submitted third party right was created in the favour of M/s Rock and Storm Hospitality by another “private entity” Ranbir Club created in 1992. The Sangrur DC was its president/ chairman in his ex officio capacity and not in his official capacity.