Kamakhya Temple Corridor: PIL In Gauhati High Court Seeks Protection Of Temple's Original Structure, Notice Issued

The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Assam government on a PIL seeking that the original structure of Kamakhya Temple not be disturbed with the construction of the proposed 'Maa Kamakhya Temple Access Corridor'.

The plea also seeks a direction on the State to not proceed with construction of the Corridor without taking prior approvals and clearance from the Department of Archaeology under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958.

The division bench of Chief Justice Vijay Bishnoi and Justice Suman Shyam has asked the State to file its response within two weeks.

“Kamakhya Temple has its own importance not only nationally but internationally…A post was put up by the Chief Minister of the State on Twitter and a four minutes video was posted which shows a huge level of construction which is supposed to be carried out, which is three times of the area available there. Basement also has to be constructed and that means there has to be excavation. They want to broaden up the staircases which leads to the main Kamakhya Temple,” Senior Advocate Shobha Gupta appearing for the petitioners told the Court.

She submitted deities in Kamakhya Temple have not been installed manually. These are natural deities and if there is some damage we cannot reinstall another statue, she said. "We have natural water springs and they are considered as deities and given different names of dus mahavidyas. Only two of them are statue, rest of them are natural water springs," Gupta argued.

She continued, “We do the sparsh darshan, so the worshippers do touch the water that is considered as touching the feet of the god. My lords.. any damage, any excavation, any broadening of thing…we have a serious concern as worshippers that it should not cause damage to the original structure.”

The matter is listed again on April 22.

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