NEW DELHI: The Union government on Thursday told the Supreme Court it would file its response by February first week to a plea by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy for a direction to declare the Ram Setu a national heritage monument.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha told Swamy that the matter will be taken up for hearing in the second week of February.
The bench also told Swamy that the matter was unlikely to be heard on Thursday, as scheduled in the cause list since a Constitution bench hearing was going on.
Swamy, for his part, said the Solicitor General had earlier made a commitment to file the reply by December 12 but failed to so.
He asked the court to summon the Cabinet Secretary .
"Earlier, they said the reply is ready," Swamy said.
Mehta, for his part, said that discussions are underway and the matter is under consideration.
He asked the court to fix the matter for hearing in February first week.
The bench, however, fixed the case for hearing in the second week of February.
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'.
Earlier 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 December, 2022, 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 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."
