Supreme Court: The Bench comprising of Madan B. Lokur, S. Abdul Nazeer and Depak Gupta, JJ., took up the matter concerning the Vision Document on the Taj Mahal.
The order stated that the Bench had a brief discussion with Ms Meenakshi Dhote who is a professor of Environmental Planning, DSPA and Project Coordinator of Vision Document. The bench has advised her to prepare a document along with the other experts by keeping the interest of Taj Trapezium Zone and Taj Mahal in mind, and on facing hurdles or obstacles she can always approach the Court.
The petitioner (M.C. Mehta) also mentioned that he had two meetings with Ms Dhote and he would be giving his suggestions in regard to the document within two weeks or so. Mr Mehta also pointed out that declaration of Agra as a heritage city was given as a direction in the case of M.C. Mehta v. Union Of India, (1997) 2 SCC 353. In response to the same, ASG stated that he has communicated the same to the U.P. Government in order to send a proposal for declaring Agra as a heritage city. Also, the ASG submitted that the Archaeological Survey of India would be filing the Management Plan to the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO.
Further valuable suggestions were received from ICOMOS, Aga Khan Foundation and INTACH in regard to the vision document. The matter was further listed for 25-09-2018. [M.C. Mehta v. Union of India (Taj Trapezium Zone),2018 SCC OnLine SC 1287, Order dated 28-08-2018]
