Cuttack: Terming it ‘incomplete’, the Orissa High Court Wednesday rejected the affidavit submitted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on the status of repair works at Srimandir Natamandap (dancing hall) in Puri and asked the agency to file a comprehensive report on or before the next hearing November 15. A division bench of the HC, comprising acting Chief Justice BR Sarangi and Justice MS Raman, asked Superintending Archaeologist (Puri Circle) DB Garnayak to take back the ‘incomplete’ affidavit filed by the ASI, Wednesday.
The court posted the hearing to November 15. The HC has been monitoring Natamandap conservation work as part of adjudication on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Abhisek Das, a resident of Cuttack, in 2016. The Natamandap repair work was taken up by the ASI after the completion of the restoration of JayBijay Dwar of the 12th-century shrine in 2017. The ASI had Monday informed the HC that the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras had in October submitted the structural design of the steel frame and detailed intervention for strengthening the cracked beam of Natamandap with the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).
However, it was pending with the temple body. The Natamandap repair work will begin after getting approval from the SJTA, according to the ASI. Expressing dissatisfaction over the inordinate delay in the completion of the repair work, the HC adjourned the matter to Wednesday and sought an affidavit from the agency explaining elaborately the exact status of the repair work of the Srimandir dance hall. The HC had September 18 this year directed ASI to expedite the strengthening of the cracked beam inside the Natamandap.
According to High Court-appointed amicus curiae NK Mohanty’s August 15, 2023 report, the Natamandap and Jagamohan of the 12th-century shrine were in a critical state and anything could happen at any moment. “Many distressed locations were observed in the second pidha of Jagamohan mostly in the form of wide structural cracks, localised dislodgement of stone blocks and detached weak lime plasters, and extensive corrosion of the existing wrought-iron clamps. These distressed locations were on the eastern and south-eastern corner of Jagamohan. There is a crack in the beam of the Natamandap. This work is very important and catastrophe may happen at any time as this subject beam is working as a cantilever from both sides,” Mohanty pointed out in his report.
