New Delhi: The Gujarat high court on Thursday, September 8, rejected a public interest litigation filed by Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson challenging the proposed redevelopment of the Sabarmati Ashram, Bar and Bench has reported.
Tushar Gandhi has been vocal on his reservations against the government’s Rs 1,200-crore plan to refurbish the Ashram ever since it was announced. The Gandhi Ashram Memorial and Precinct Development Project was jointly undertaken by the state and the Union government for developing the ashram, where Mahatma Gandhi lived from 1917 to 1930.
The Gujarat high court had earlier rejected his plea against the project, following which Gandhi moved the top court. In April, a Supreme Court bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Surya Kant remitted the case to the Gujarat high court for a detailed hearing.
According to a LiveLaw published before the Supreme Court hearing, Gandhi had said that the project will change the physical structure of Sabarmati Ashram and affect its pristine simplicity that embodies the ideology of Gandhiji. He has also expressed his apprehension saying that with the nature of redevelopment and over-sized involvement of the government authorities in the conception and execution of the project, the ashram may lose the Gandhian ethos.
A bench of the high court, comprising Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh J. Shastri said that the project would “promote ideas and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi benefitting the society at large.”
Writers, activists, former high court judges, educationists, former civil servants and other eminent citizens have also expressed strong reservations against the spirit of the project.
They had likened the government’s plan – to be executed under direct supervision of the Prime Minister and Gujarat chief minister – to the Central Vista project and the concerns surrounding it, saying that the plan was a move to appropriate and commercialise the spirit of Gandhian institutions.
The high court while rejecting Gandhi’s plea placed on record the submission made by Advocate General Kamal Trivedi that the existing Gandhi Ashram would not be disturbed or altered, Bar and Bench reported.
Gandhi in his plea had argued that the significance of the land doesn’t limit to the one-acre Ashram itself but covers the entire property on the banks of the Sabarmati, which covers more than 100 acres, Leaflet has reported.