Rangashala case: SC bench recuses from hearing Centre's plea

A Supreme Court bench today recused from further hearing a plea of the Centre seeking restoration and restart of amphitheatre Rabindra Rangshala which is currently in ruins in Central Ridge, a declared reserved forest area here.
"We have been there. If we allow you, then it will give me pain for my entire life. Let other bench hear and decide it," Justice J S Khehar, who is heading the bench that also included Justice C Nagappan, said while referring the matter to the Chief Justice of India for further allocation.
The Ministry of Culture has moved the court seeking its nod for restoration of Rabindra Rangashala on the ground that no concrete structure will be set up and it is an attempt to revive the amphitheatre in the Upper Ridge area where several schools and Ganga Ram Hospital are running with the permission of this court.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that once a forest can't always be a forest. There are hospitals, schools and other establishments running with the permission of the Supreme Court and people from various places come for morning walk in the area, he said..
To this, the bench said that there are a huge number of trees which will be affected if this open air theatre, with a seating capacity for 8,000 people, is restarted.
Rohatgi said that the entire area is spread over 800 acres of land and the theatre occupies only 37 acres.

The bench also took on record the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Report filed by Forest Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in compliance with an earlier order of the court.

"It is proposed to have rehabilitation and retro-fitting work of the existing structures at Rabindra Rangshala as existing structures have been not used for a long lapse of time and not maintained either. Henceforth, levelling and exacavation is not envisaged.
"Since removal of vegetation from renovation area is envisaged, therefore, it may affect the ecology of the area. The soil quality of the area may get disturbed if construction debris are not managed properly," the report has said.
On February 26, the apex court had asked MoEF to file EIA, with regard to the proposal of renovation.
The structure, conceived and created by the Rabindranath

Tagore Centenary Committee headed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was Delhi's cultural hot spot for three decades.
The unique open air theatre is lying abandoned for the last two decades after the Centre on the Supreme Court's intervention declared the Ridge area a reserved forest in the mid-1990s.