‘Ram Setu’ to be declared a national heritage monument: Centre to SC

The Central government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the process to declare ‘Ram Setu’ a national heritage monument is currently underway in the Ministry of Culture.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy was given permission by a bench consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala to submit a representation to the Ministry asking the government to declare “Ram Setu” a national monument. The Ministry will inform the court about the decision made by the Center, the top court ruled.

The order of the apex court came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that the process is currently underway in the Ministry of Culture. He said that Swamy may submit additional communication if he so wishes. When the CJI said that Swamy can meet the concerned person, he said, “I do not want to meet anybody if they do not want to. We are in the same party, it was there in our manifesto. Let them decide in six weeks or four weeks…”

In his plea, Swamy had urged the Supreme Court to pass an order and direct the “Union of India along with National Monuments Authority (NMA) to declare Ram Setu as an Ancient Monument of National Importance.” He had also urged the top court to pass an order and direct the “Union of India to engage the Geological Survey of India and Archeological Survey of India to conduct a detailed survey with respect to Ram Setu as an Ancient Monument of National Importance.”