SC rejects application on Ram Sethu project

New Delhi, Oct 24: The Supreme Court today refused to entertain an application filed by Janata Party President Dr Subramanian Swamy seeking to quash the ten-member committee appointed by the Central government to go into the issue whether the Sethusamudram project could be carried out without demolishing the Ram Sethu.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices R V Raveendran and Dal Veer Bhandari declined to interfere with the constitution of the committee headed by Professor S Ramachandran saying that, ''let the committee report come first only then the court will examine whether the report is biased or not.'' Earlier, Dr Swamy had put forth his application before the bench this morning for urgent hearing.

The applicant in his plea had alleged that the ''anti-Hindu'' views of three members of the committee including its Chairman were well known.

The petitioner alleged that Professor Ramachandran had publicly declared that the Ram Sethu was a geological formation and not a human construction.

Mr S R Wate as Deputy Director of the project committee had given clearance to the project and the third member R S Sharma is a known CPM(Marxist) member and has already rubbished the claim of Hindus that the Ram Sethu was constructed by Lord Rama with the help of Hanuman's Vanar sena to attack Sri Lanka to free his wife Sita from the captivity of Ravana, he added.

UNI