- (1.) The crux of the facts, which needs a necessary mention for a limited purpose of deciding the sole controversy, involved in the instant writ petition and emanating from the record, is that Royal Shahi Samadhan situated at Patiala, was declared a protected Monument by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Archeology and Museums, Punjab, vide Notification dated 27.02.2009 (Annexure P/1), in view of the provisions of The Punjab Ancient and Historical Monuments & Archaeological Sites and Remain Act, 1964(hereinafter to be referred as "the Act"). During the course of enquiry, it revealed that the office and tower of the petitioner Company-BSNL (for short "the petitioner-Company"), are existing on the protected monument area, without any sanction/permission of the Competent Authority. Exhibiting the great concern and the entirely unsatisfactorily manner, with which the protected monument and their property are preserved or maintained by the State Government, the First Division Bench of this Court, issued the following directions, by virtue of order dated 04.10.2008 rendered in Civil Writ Petition No. 17704 of 1997:- (i) the Areheologieal Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle, Chandigarh shall send detailed particulars, including the area of the land underneath an ancient/protected monument to the Deputy Commissioner-cum-Collector of the district concerned where such monument is located in the State of Punjab and Haryana within a period of one month, if not sent already; (ii) the Deputy Commissioner-cum-Collector of the district concerned shall obtain a report from the revenue authorities regarding the encroachment, if any, made over the property of the ancient/protected monument within a period of one month from the date intimation regarding such ancient/protected monument is received from the Areheologieal Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle, Chandigarh and shall send a copy of the report to the Areheologieal Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle, Chandigarh; (iii) it shall be the duty of the Areheologieal Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle, Chandigarh and also of the Deputy Commissioner-cum-Collector of the district concerned to get the ancient/protected monument or the property attached thereto retrieved from the encroachers in accordance with law. Wherever such an encroacher has got an injunction order from the civil court, the Areheologieal Survey of India as well as the Collector shall produce a copy of this order before the civil court to enable it to pass an appropriate order which may not be inconsistent with the directions issued hereinabove. The court concerned shall also be requested for early disposal of the pending suit/appeal, as the case may be; (iv) the Areheologieal Survey of India shall ensure that all the ancient or protected monuments are maintained, preserved, repaired or renovated periodically and the duty, if any, cast upon the Collector of a district in this regard under the 1958 Act shall be performed by him with or without any request from the Areheologieal Survey of India; (v) after removal of all encroachments from the ancient or protected monuments and/or their repair/renovations, a compliance report along with photographs of each of the said monuments shall be submitted to the Registry of this Court. The entire exercise, however, shall have to be carried out before 30.9.2009, failing which, besides suo moto, any public spirited person shall also be competent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the erring Collector or the authorities of the Areheologieal Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle, Chandigarh; (vi) the Areheologieal Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle, Chandigarh, with the assistance of the District Administration concerned, shall further ensure that no part of the ancient or protected monument in possession of the encroachers or otherwise is damaged, defaced, altered or impaired, till such encroachments are removed.
(2.) Sequelly, the Punjab Government has empowered the Deputy Commissioners to remove all the encroachments on the declared protected monument vide Notification dated 24.03.2009. In exercise of these powers, the Deputy Commissioner, Patiala, passed the ejectment order and the petitioner- Company challenged the same through the medium of Civil Writ Petition No. 15333 of 2009, which was disposed of along with Civil Writ Petition No. 15164 of 2009. This Court set aside the eviction order and permitted the petitioner- Company to file reply to the show cause notice and the respondents were directed to decide the matter expeditiously, after providing the opportunity to the petitioner- Company, by way of order dated 23.12.2009 (Annexure P-4).
(3.) In pursuance thereof, the Deputy Commissioner issued a show cause notice dated 12.08.2009 to the General Manager of the petitioner-Company, for removal of the encroachments of their office and tower, which are being run, without any authority in the declared protected monument area under Section 30(1) of the Act and was directed to remove the encroachments within a period of 15 days, failing which the proceedings under Section 31 of the Act, were proposed to be initiated.;