Rajasthan HC stays work at Kuldhara village

JAISALMER: The high court on Thursday stayed all constructions at the famous ‘haunted’ and abandoned Kuldhara village in Jaisalmer district.
The division bench of Justice Dinesh Mehta and Sangeet Lodha issued the stay order during the hearing of a PIL by Sunil Paliwal. The court expressed annoyance over constructions at the archaeological site at Kuldhara and ordered that till further orders no constructions should be carried out.High court had ordered to maintain status quo at Kuldhara and had banned on all kinds of commercial activities on November 27 last year. The court had also ordered the district collector Jaisalmer and director, department of archaeology and museums Jaipur to be present in the court on Thursday.
But the collector sought exemption from personal appearance due to the visit of the President, the Prime Minister, the governor of Rajasthan and the chief minister to attend a large-scale war combat game exercise scheduled to be carried out by Indian Air Force at Jaisalmer.
The court granted exemption on condition that director, department of archaeology & museums, Jaipur and the district collector, Jaisalmer, would be present before the court on the next date of hearing on February 22.