B.S. Chauhan, J. - (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) The appellant has preferred this appeal against the judgment and order of the High Court of Calcutta dated 21.8.2009 by which the application filed by the appellant for modification of order dated 28.9.2007 passed in Writ Petition No. 7987(W) of 2002, stood rejected.
(3.) The facts and circumstances giving rise to this appeal are as under: A foundation stone of Victoria Memorial Hall (hereinafter called 'VMH') was laid by the king George the Vth (the then Prince of Wales) on January 4, 1906. Between years 1908 and 1921 various objects of arts, manuscripts, medals, arms and armours were collected and preserved for being transferred and displayed at VMH upon construction and on December 28, 1921 its construction was mostly completed. It was inaugurated by the Edward, the VIIIth (the then Prince of Wales) and was opened for public viewing. Afterwards, the Museum attained the status of National Museum of modern Indian history starting from 18th century. In the year 1925, illustrated catalogue of exhibits in VMH was published. Between years 1934 and 1935 cupolas were added to the main monument. The memorial is the repository of a largest number of Daniells' paintings in the world. It possesses the third largest painting in the world-Vassili Verestchagin's "The State Procession of the Prince of Wales into Jaipur in 1876". The memorial's philatelic collection on Indian postal history is equally large. Among other important collections, one may refer to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's hand-written Quran or Dara Sikoh's translation of the Upanishads. Equally important and fascinating are the works of Johann Zoffany, Tilly Kettle, Hodges, Samuel Davis, Robert Home, Reynolds, Charles D'oyly, Emily Eden, George Stubbs' painting of Hastings, and Qazar, painting of Fatah Ali Shah, Tipu Sultan's personal war-diary, and the Cannon-balls of the battle of Plassey. Other than the Curzonian scheme of collection and arrangement of the exhibits, the post-independence collections include National Leaders' Gallery as well as collections of other artifacts-Bankim Chandra's writing desk, Mahatma Gandhi's ashes, paintings of Abanindranath, Atul Bose and Jamini Roy, etc. A total of about 27,000 artifacts (e.g. painting, watercolours, stamps, coins, arms and armour) exists in the VMH. VMH monument has a covered area of 1.7632 acres and is situated in a portion of a large campus having an area of about 57 acres. There have all along been within the Campus annexe buildings having total covered area of around 5000 Sq. meters. These annexe buildings were built for being used as non family duty quarters, garage for tractors and cars, stores of garden equipment, dormitory, staff canteen, recreation room, union room and a block of toilets. The old annexe buildings have become dilapidated through passage of time. In December, 2000, the Government of India advised VMH to take steps for modernisation of VMH with the help of National Institute of Design. VMH is administered and managed by an autonomous Board of Trustees constituted under Victoria Memorial Act, 1903 (hereinafter called 'Act'). The Chairman of the Board of Trustees is the Governor of the State of West Bengal. Other members include the Chief Justice, Kolkata High Court, Mayor, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Principal Secretaries of the Departments of Culture, Finance, Tourism, Higher. Education, Accountant General of West Bengal and various other prominent citizens. For better preservation and maintenance of VMH, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (hereinafter called as 'NEERI') had given various suggestions in April 1992 but the same remained unattended. In February, 2002 West Bengal Pollution Control Board submitted a report on air quality around the VMH in which it was suggested to make a further study into the matter by Expert Organization like NEERI. ;