What the SC has ruled on compensation for religious structures damaged in 2002 Gujarat riots

The Supreme Court today allowed the appeal filed against a verdict of the Gujarat High Court, which had directed the state to pay compensation for over 500 religious structures destroyed during the 2002 Gujarat riots..The judgment today was passed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice PC Pant..In 2012, a Gujarat High Court Bench of Justices Bhaskar Bhattacharya and JB Pardiwala had directed the state government to compensate for destruction of mosques, dargahs and other religious structures. The state was directed to immediately repair and restore the same within a specified time limit and to suitably and adequately compensate the trusts and institutions in charge of these religious structures..Appearing for the state government before the Supreme Court, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the money would be taken out of the public exchequer and that such expenditure was impermissible in view of Article 27 of the Constitution..That provision states,.“Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion: No person shall be compelled to pay any taxes, the proceeds of which are specifically appropriated in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination.”.Senior Advocates YH Muchhala and Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the respondents, Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat, contended, among other things, that the compensation was being appropriated in lieu of violation of human rights and not for the promotion of any particular religion or religious denomination, and therefore the concept of secularism is not affected..While determining the state’s liability to pay compensation, the Court referred to Prafull Goradia v. Union of India, in which it was held,.“In our opinion, if only a relatively small part of any tax collected is utilised for providing some conveniences or facilities or concessions to any religious denomination, that would not be violative of Article 27 of the Constitution. It is only when a substantial part of the tax is utilised for any particular religion that Article 27 would be violated.”.It also referred to an earlier order in the case, wherein the Court cited the decision in Archbishop Raphael Cheenath SVD v. State of Orissa and another, and asked the state government if it had any compensation scheme in place..Pursuant to this, the state government, in October 2013, would release an ex gratia compensation scheme for religious places damaged/destroyed during the communal riots. This scheme would be on the lines of the compensation scheme for damaged residential and commercial buildings..This scheme limits compensation to those structures that are authorized and are not located in the middle of a public road. Moreover, the District Collector will have to be satisfied that the claimant is the owner of the religious structure in question. The scheme also sets a maximum limit of Rs. 50,000 as compensation..Giving the green signal for the scheme to be applied in the present case, the Court held,.“It is also worthy to note that while fixing the maximum limit, the Government has equated the same with houses, which have been given the assistance. When the individual’s grievances pertaining to property has been conferred the similar assistance, we are disposed to think, the assistance rendered for repairing/restoration of public places of worship will come within the guidelines of Prafull Goradia (supra) and Archbishop Raphael Cheenath S.V.D. (supra). Therefore, we accept the said scheme.”.Hence, the Court set aside the High Court judgment..Read the judgment: