CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday directed the state government and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to jointly complete in six months the demarcation and construction of boundary wall around the entire 562.681 acre centrally-protected Sisupalgarh ruins on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.
The court set the deadline while disposing of a PIL filed by Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural (Intach) 15 years ago, seeking intervention for protection of more than 2000-year-old monuments at Sisupalgarh by constructing a boundary wall. Senior advocate GP Mohanty appeared on the petitioner’s behalf.
The remains of what possibly was one of the earliest fortified cities was excavated at Sisupalgarh by ASI in 1948. While the Central government through a gazette notification on November 13, 1950 declared 562.68 acre at Sisupalgarh as protected area, of which only 0.775 acre has been recorded in favour of ASI so far.
The stand of the ASI was that it can construct the boundary wall around the protected area only after removal of encroachments within the protected area. On September 21, 2022, the court had pinned hopes on the state government’s chief secretary to break the stalemate over construction of boundary wall around Sisupalgarh monuments. Accordingly, the court had directed the chief secretary to convene a meeting of all the parties and work out steps for the purpose.
In an affidavit the state government informed the court on Tuesday that decisions to facilitate demarcation and construction of the boundary wall were taken at a joint meeting convened by the chief secretary on October 20, 2022. Taking note of the affidavit the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice MS Raman said, “In that view of the matter direction is issued to adhere to the decision and take steps accordingly in a time bound manner. The entire exercise to be completed within six months. All parties involved will cooperate with each other so that the decisions are implemented in letter and spirit.”