The Gujarat High Court dismissed the PIL seeking disclosure of the reported Buddhist archaeological findings linked to the Somnath temple site and imposed a cost of Rs 2 lakh on the petitioner.
The bench said the petition was filled with incorrect, misleading, and distorted facts, and observed that it damaged the credibility of genuine PILs. The court also said the petitioner should have approached the concerned authorities instead of directly filing the petition, and noted that the case appeared to be driven by an ulterior motive.
The petitioner had sought public disclosure of a scientific survey reportedly conducted by IIT Gandhinagar and the Archaeological Survey of India, and had made the Shree Somnath Trust and ASI respondents. The state government argued that the plea aimed to drag the temple trust into unnecessary controversy without any basis.
The court also accepted the government’s objection that some key claims in the petition were factually incorrect, including the assertion about a “Shree Somnath Trust Act, 1955,” which the government said does not exist.
Gujarat High Court dismisses Somnath’s PIL, imposes Rs 2 lakh cost, and calls the petition misleading, distorted, and without a verified basis.
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