NEW DELHI: The Union government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the process for declaring Ram Setu as national monument is underway in the Ministry of Culture.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala allowed BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to provide additional materials to the Ministry, examining the matter.
The court also said it would want to know as to how the process was culminated.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the government was already looking into the matter. The petitioner can make a representation.
Swamy, for his part, said in 2019, the Minister concerned had called meetings of all officials, and subsequently the file has gone to the Prime Minister.
"Why are you dragging your feet? It is part of the Manifesto too," he said.
The court allowed Swamy to make a representation with liberty to take legal recourse if aggrieved by the final decision.
In his plea, Swamy sought a direction to the Union government and the National Monument Authority to declare 'Ram Setu' as a monument of national importance.
He claimed the Centre has already accepted existence of 'Ram Setu' and a meeting was also convened in 2017 to consider his demand but nothing had happened afterwards.
Ram Setu, also known as Adam's Bridge, is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island or Rameswaram Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka. It is believed to be the same bridge built by Lord Ram as mentioned in the 'Ramayan'.
In 2007, the UPA government had proposed a Sethusamudram project under which an 83-km-long deep water channel was to be made by extensive dredging and removal of the limestone shoals.
However, Swamy challenged the decision in the court. Subsequently, the Union government had to adopt an alternative plan to link Mannar with Palk Strait.
In reply to a query put by an Independent MP from Haryana, Kartikeya Sharma, in Rajya Sabha of scientific research on the structure, Union Minister Jitendra Singh had in December, 2022 said, "If it is said in simple words, it is difficult to say that the real form of Ram Setu is present there. However, there are some indications which suggest that the structure may be present there."
