Supreme Court agrees to examine plea to repeal Bodh Gaya temple law
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a plea for repealing the Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949 and replacing it with a central law for the proper control, management and administration of Mahabodhi temple in Bihar.
The Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Bihar's Bodh Gaya, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is one of the four holy areas related to the life of Lord Gautam Buddha.
Bodh Gaya is a place where Lord Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment. The plea, which has also challenged the validity of the 1949 Act, came up for hearing before a bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh. The petitioner's counsel said a plea with identical prayers was pending in the apex court.
The bench issued notice to the Centre and others seeking their responses on the petition and tagged it for hearing along with the pending plea. The plea has sought to declare the 1949 Act as unconstitutional alleging it was "inconsistent" with Article 13 of the Constitution. Article 13 relates to laws inconsistent with or in derogation of the fundamental rights. The petition has also sought a direction to the authorities concerned to remove encroachments made in the premises of the Bodh Gaya temple for the exclusive worship of Buddhists around the world in order to manage, control and administer the religious, faith, belief and worship in the interest of justice. On June 30, the apex court refused to entertain a separate plea challenging the vires of the 1949 Act and asked the petitioner to moved high court concerned. The 1949 Act relates to the better management of the temple.
The Mahabodhi Temple Complex comprises a 50-metre high grand temple, the Vajrasana, the sacred Bodhi tree and six other sacred sites of Buddha's enlightenment, surrounded by numerous ancient votive stupas, well maintained and protected by inner, middle and outer circular boundaries.
A seventh sacred place, the Lotus Pond, is located outside the enclosure to the south. Both the temple area and the Lotus Pond are surrounded by circulating passages at two or three levels, and the area of the ensemble is 5 metres below the level of the surrounding land.
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