Supreme Court saps UP for poor upkeep of Taj Mahal

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday demanded a fresh vision document from the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh to protect and preserve the Taj Mahal. The top court had earlier sought a vision document from the Uttar Pradesh government dealing with all aspects of environmental pollution that’s attributed to the yellowing of the ageing monument, which is designated as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The Yogi government will now have to file a fresh vision document within four weeks. Wednesday’s suggestion by a bench led by Justice SA Bobde, in line to be CJI after the current Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi demits office later this year, seemed to suggest that what the state government had done wasn’t enough.

Justice Bobde said that the bench was “concerned” about the protection and preservation of the monument and also its upkeep according to international standards.




The old vision document ran into hundreds of pages and had detailed steps proposed to be taken on several fronts to address air, water pollution and crowding around the monument.

The top court has been monitoring the Taj Trapezium Zone situation for a long time. Though under court orders, many polluting industries have since been shifted out from the area and many development work have been carried out, the monument’s condition hasn’t become any better than before.

The top court bench had earlier slammed the state government for ignoring the monument which is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the state. The UP government had courted controversy when it had not included the Taj Mahal in its list of historical monuments in the state.