Centre willing to return site of Guru Ravidas temple to devotees in interest of peace and harmony, AG to SC

Attorney General for India KK Venugopal today informed the Supreme Court that the Centre has proposed to return the site of the Guru Ravidas Temple in Delhi to its devotees..The inadvertent demolition of the Guru Ravidas Temple in South Delhi had caused a stir among the devotees, leading to protests in the city. When the Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Ravindra Bhat took up the matter today, the Centre told the Court that in the interests of peace and harmony, the specific site where the temple stood will be returned to the devotees..“The entire belief and faith of the devotees of Sant Ravidas is in the site where Guru Ravidas stayed and therefore in the interest of peace and harmony we want to return the site to the devotees“, AG told the Court..The proposal to return the site is agreeable to most of the petitioners who had approached the Court against the demolition of the temple, the Court was informed..However, two out of the seven petitioners have objected to the proposal. The lawyer for one of the petitioners told the Court that time was required to file a reply to the Centre’s proposal..The Court has fixed the next date of hearing on Monday, October 21..The Bench was dealing with a plea filed by Ashok Tanwar and Pradeep Jain Aditya, two former members of Parliament from the Congress party protesting the demolition of the Guru Ravidas Temple at Tughlaqabad, New Delhi..The August 21 demolition by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had provoked large scale protests by members of the Dalit community who follow Guru Ravidas, in whose honour the temple site was revered. Followers believe that Guru Ravidas had stayed at the temple site after it was given to him in 1509 by Sikander Lodhi..The DDA had carried out the demolition citing a Supreme Court order passed in a long-standing land encroachment dispute.