Mysuru City Corporation directed to deposit Rs. 5 lakh to facilitate new structural survey

Mysore/Mysuru: The Supreme Court has ordered a fresh structural assessment of Mysuru’s historic Devaraja Market and Lansdowne Building, tasking the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee with the evaluation.

A Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Sandeep Mehta passed the order on Sept. 2 in response to a plea challenging the Karnataka authorities’ decision to demolish and reconstruct the 19th-century heritage buildings while retaining their facades.

The Court has directed IIT Roorkee to submit a report, to be filed in a sealed cover, on whether the two structures can be preserved through repairs and renovation instead of being demolished.

To facilitate this assessment, the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has been instructed to deposit Rs. 5 lakh with the institute. The hearing has been adjourned to Sept. 18.

The Supreme Court was hearing the Special Leave Petition challenging the Karnataka High Court’s order dated Aug. 8, 2023. Based on expert opinion, the Bench observed that the Court cannot sit as an appellate body in writ jurisdiction to set aside the opinion of the experts.

INTACH report

The Court took note of the report submitted by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Bengaluru, which opined that the preservation of the buildings is possible through renovation and repairs.

The INTACH report, prepared by a team of conservation experts headed by Dr. Meera Iyer and Prof. Raghunath, concluded that the buildings could be preserved using relatively simple structural intervention techniques while retaining their original form, character, and heritage value.

It recommended that a detailed conservation plan and maintenance manual be drawn up by a team of experts for the long-term sustenance of the structures.

The Bench said that prima facie, if it is possible to preserve the two structures as they are with some repairs/renovation, then they should be preserved. “Although there is one report of INTACH as an expert body, we would still like to call for one other report from IIT Roorkee,” the Bench said.

Objections by State

The counsel for the State of Karnataka, however, raised objections regarding the assessment conducted by INTACH, noting it was a private trust. While the Court did not accept these submissions as a valid reason to dismiss the report outright, it decided to commission a fresh evaluation from IIT Roorkee for a conclusive opinion. Advocate Dr. Aditya Sondhi appeared on behalf of the petitioners.

Earlier, based on a resolution passed by the MCC, the Government had decided to demolish both buildings and reconstruct them. Traders at Devaraja Market, fearing loss of livelihood, opposed the demolition and challenged the Government’s decision in the High Court. 

However, the High Court, on Aug. 8, 2023, dismissed the Public Interest Litigation. The petitioners later filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court which sought comprehensive reports from both INTACH and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).