Sahib Singh's memorial an encroachment: Centre

NEW DELHI: Almost a year after former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma was given a state funeral in the presence of Prime Minister Manomhan Singh and other political bigwigs, the Centre, on Friday, described the memorial at the spot as an encroachment on a children's sports complex land.
"The Centre has not allotted the land to anyone as it is exclusively for a children's sports complex at Ghevra village.The possession of the land is with us. Some people have broken the boundary wall and encroached upon it. We have made a complaint about the encroachment to the police," said additional solicitor general P P Malhotra to the Supreme Court.
A vacation bench comprising Justices Altamas Kabir and G S Singhvi appeared far from satisfied with the Centre's answer to a petition filed by one Anang Pal Singh, who alleged that though his land was acquired for a sports complex, BJP workers encroached upon it to build a memorial for Verma.
"Apart from making the complaint to the police, have you (Centre) done anything? With the might of administration, even the Commissioner of Delhi Police is under you. Is the Centre pleading helplessness?" said the Bench before ordering status quo at the site and directing the Centre to secure the place from any further encroachment.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Pradeep Gupta said that the government was not taking any step to remove the encroachment as, in the election year, it does not want to alienate Verma's supporters, who form a sizable chunk of Jat votes in Delhi.
The Bench refused to be drawn into the politics of the controversy and turned its attention to the counsel for Verma's son who tried to establish the legitimacy of the memorial on the land.
The counsel, senior advocate P H Parekh, said the government had accorded a state funeral to Sahib Singh Verma who died in a road accident in Rajasthan on June 30 last year.
"The funeral was attended by the Prime Minister and Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and the site was cleared by the government for cremation and the memorial. How could it now be termed as encroachment? We have not walked in just like that," Parekh said.
Unimpressed, the Bench said: "It makes no difference as to who all attended the funeral. Show us the documents about the allotment of land for memorial purposes. It cannot be that anyone can walk into any land and take it over."
When Parekh conceded that there was no official allotment of land for the cremation and a memorial, the Bench said: "If you have not walked in, then stay away. If you have walked in, then get out. What is this, everyone is taking law into their hands."
Giving two weeks time to the Centre to file its response, the Bench directed the registry to post the matter for further hearing after four weeks.