Considering policy to repair religious sites: Gujarat to SC

NEW DELHI: The Gujarat government today told the Supreme Court that it is considering to frame a policy for compensating the religious places, damaged in the 2002 riots.

Appearing before a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra, the advocate general for Gujarat submitted that the state government is considering to frame a policy to repair damaged shrines on the lines of a scheme formulated by the Odisha Government on the apex court's directions.

The bench, meanwhile, refused to stay the Gujarat High Court's order to the state government to repair and rebuild religious sites which were damaged during the 2002 riots.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on August 14 and asked the state government to brief it about the scheme on that day.

The apex court's order came on an appeal by the Gujarat government against the Gujarat High Court order, which had asked it to pay compensation for damages to the religious sites.

The Gujarat government was pulled up by the Gujarat High Court on February 8 for its "inaction and negligence" during the 2002 post-Godhra riots, which had led to large-scale damages to various religious structures.

The high court had ordered compensation for over 500 places of worships in the state on a plea by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat (IRCG), an NGO.

The NGO had contended that 535 religious places were affected out of which 37 are yet to be repaired.