Next hearing in Patna Collectorate case on March 17

The Patna High Court on Thursday fixed March 17 as the next date of hearing in the case of demolition of the historic district Collectorate here.

The matter came up for hearing in the court of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol who had heard the case last on January 31.

"The court has fixed the next date of hearing on March 17," said Sanket Sinha, the lawyer of INTACH, the petitioner in the case.

The Bihar government had in 2016 proposed to demolish the old Patna Collectorate for a new high-rise complex, triggering public outcry and appeals from various quarters in India and abroad to prevent the building's demolition and preserve it as a "signpost of Patna's history".

Subsequently, the Indian National Trust for Art and Culture (INTACH) had last year filed two petitions in the Patna High Court challenging the demolition proposal and seeking constitution of a Bihar heritage commission.

After hearing the two PILs, the Patna High Court had last September stayed the proposed demolition of the government complex while restraining the state authorities from "causing any harm to the collectorate building until further orders", bringing some relief to the heritage lovers.

Historians, urban planners, conservation architects and other heritage experts have been appealing to the Nitish Kumar-led government to not dismantle the collectorate, saying it will "set a very bad precedent" and "jeopardise" the fate of other colonial-era buildings.

After the January 31 hearing, the chief justice's court had said that from the response dated October 25 last year, filed on behalf of the respondent, "it is not clear as to whether the statutory body under the provisions of the Bihar Urban Planning and Development, Act, 2012 or Rules framed thereunder stands constituted or not".

The rules provide for constitution of Urban Area and Heritage Commission. Before such a body is constituted and a decision is taken by such body with regard to the property in question, "we are not inclined to modify the interim order dated September 25 passed by this court in the connected writ petition," the court had said on January 31 while directing that "the Collectorate building be not demolished till the next date of hearing".

The Patna Collectorate complex, parts of which are over 250 years old, is situated on the banks of the Ganga and is endowed with high ceilings, huge doors and hanging skylights.

One of the last surviving signatures of Dutch architecture in the Bihar capital, its fate currently hangs in the balance.

The historic buildings of the centuries-old Patna Collectorate and the iconic Golghar here were used as observation stations during the Great Trigonometrical Survey, a landmark project of the 19th century that aimed to measure the entire Indian subcontinent with scientific precision, according to archival documents.

'Save Historic Patna Collectorate', a civil society-led movement for historic preservation in Bihar, has been striving for the past four years to save the collectorate from demolition. It has garnered support from a large number of people from home and abroad.