Supreme Court seeks Centre's response on Subramanian Swamy plea to declare Ram Setu a 'National Monument'

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Union government's response to former Member of Parliament (MP) Subramanian Swamy's plea for decision on his representation to declare Ram Setu as a National Monument and a monument of National Importance under Ancient Monuments and Archeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.

The bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta issued notice to the Union of India and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

"Issue notice returnable within 4 weeks," the Court ordered.

In January 2023, the top court had recorded Solicitor General Tushar Mehta's statement that the matter was under consideration by the Ministry of Culture and that Swamy can submit additional material or communication in this regard.

Following the order, Swamy had filed a representation with the Centre. He filed a fresh representation in May this year. In the plea filed now, Swamy has alleged that he has received no response to his representations.

"This Writ Petition in the nature of a Public Interest Litigation under Article 32 of the Constitution of India has been filed before this Hon’ble Court seeking to seek appropriate directions from this Hon'ble Court to the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, to decide the representation of the Petitioner in an expeditious manner/time-bound manner in compliance of Order of this Hon’ble Court dated 19.01.2023," the plea stated.

The plea mentioned that according to ancient history of India and the epic Ramayana, the Ram Setu bridge was constructed by Lord Ram with the help of his local allies with a view to go to Sri Lanka to rescue his wife from Lanka King, Ravana.

"According to the Indian ancient history and as per the calculations based on Indian Uga system the bridge was constructed several centuries ago. It is learnt that till 15th century the above bridge was used for traversing on foot and thereafter due to storms the bridge became unusable (circa 1480 AD)," it added.

Under Section 3 and 4 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958 the Government of India is duty bound to declare Ancient Monuments as of National Importance, Swamy argued.