A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Monday asked the West Bengal Heritage Commission and the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to visit the Jorasanko campus of Rabindra Bharati University and file a report on whether there are unauthorised structures on the campus.
The bench fixed April 10 for the next hearing of the case. The heritage commission and ASI representatives will have to file their report in the court that day.
The university is partially housed at Tagore’s family home, known as Jorasanko Thakurbari.
Monday’s order followed a public interest litigation (PIL) by advocate Srijib Chakrabarti stating that according to the registrar of the university, unauthorised constructions were still there inside the heritage part of the building.
The lawyer said the logo of Biswa Bangla can be seen inside the campus and the report submitted by a committee of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) saying constructions were not found within the heritage area was not true.
After hearing the plea, the division bench issued the order.
Following Chakrabarti’s PIL, members of the heritage committee of the KMC had in December inspected a portion of Jorasanko Thakurbari that the court had asked the civic body to restore after clearing it of encroachments.
Two rooms on the ground floor of the heritage building, below Dakshiner Baranda, had been changed and were encroached on, an official of the civic body had said.
In Monday’s order, the court asked the heritage commission as well as the ASI to visit the Thakurbari.
The Thakurbari is a Grade-I heritage building, according to the Graded List of Heritage Buildings of the KMC. No external change to a Grade I heritage building is permissible.
