The Supreme Court on Thursday (February 8) asked the Centre and the concerned authorities as to why environmental activist M C Mehta was not consulted and informed of the meetings held to prepare the apex court-ordered “vision document” for protecting and preserving the Taj Mahal.

On December 8, last year, the Supreme Court had passed an order directing the government to prepare a detailed “vision document” for protection and preservation of the Taj. The court had granted the government eight weeks time to do so.

The case is related to the Taj Trapezium zone, which is spread over five districts of Uttar Pradesh—Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Hathras and Etah and also Bharatpur in Rajasthan. The court had also directed the government to consult all the stakeholders and members of the civil society including the petitioner.

Mehta on Thursday told the bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that he had not been consulted by the government nor was he aware of the meeting that was last conducted in January. Justice Lokur asked Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta: “Why weren’t the minutes of the meeting presented to the petitioner?”

While hearing the petition, the court also asked the government whether there was a sudden happening of events around the Taj. To which, ASG Mehta replied that all such activities have been stopped and will not resume.

There was an additional plea by senior counsel Shyam Divan asking permission from the court to cut trees in order to lay a pipeline for water supply to Agra. He informed the court that the pipeline work is about to finish and requires the cutting down of trees falling within 8 km of the construction area. Justice Lokur, however, refused to permit the cutting down of trees as the mortality rates of these trees were 80 percent.

The matter has been listed after four weeks.

—India Legal Bureau