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"20C. Application for repair or renovation in prohibited area, or construction or re-construction or repair or renovation in regulated area.―(1) Any person, who owns any building or structure, which existed in a prohibited area before the 16th day of June, 1992, or, which had been subsequently constructed with the approval of the Director- General and desires to carry out any repair or renovation of such building or structure, may make an application to the competent authority for carrying out such repair or renovation, as the case may be.
VI. Repair or renovation of residential building or structure located in the prohibited area owned by any person, private sector, public sector, the State Government or the Central Government built prior to 16th June, 1992 or subsequently constructed with the approval of Director General, Archaeological Survey of India on the basis of the recommendation of the expert advisory committee; or VII. Repair or renovation of any building or structure located in the land owned by the applicant in the regulated area.
7. Category of application to be forwarded to Authority :-
The competent authority shall forward the applications received under category I, II, III, IV and V specified in rule 6, to the Authority after processing them with its recommendation.
8. Category of applications to be processed and cleared by the competent authority under intimation to Authority.- (1) The applications received under category VI of rule 6 in the prohibited area, involving minor repairs, such as filling up of or grouting cracks, re-plastering of certain portions of the building or structure, repairs to water tanks or drainage, sewerage lines, underpinning to strengthen the foundation, replacement of windows, doors, relaying of flooring, water-
Proviso to that section empowers the Central Government to issue notification in the Official Gazette and specify an area more than two hundred meters to be the regulated area having regard to the classification of any protected monument or protected area, as the case may be, under Section 4A. In terms of Section 20A(2), it has been made clear that no person other than an Archaeological Officer shall carry out any construction in any prohibited area. This is subject to Section 20C, which can be treated as an exception to Section 20A(2). That section lays down that any person who owns any building or structure, W.P.(C) 6447/2019 Page 9 which existed in a prohibited area before 16.6.1992 or had been subsequently constructed with the approval of the Director General may carry out any repair or renovation of such building or structure by making an application to the competent authority. The term "renovation" appearing in Section 20C will take its colour from the word "repair" appearing in that section. This would mean that in the garb of renovation, the owner of a building cannot demolish the existing structure and raise a new one and the competent authority cannot grant permission for such reconstruction. Section 20A(3) lays down that the Central Government or the Director General can, in exceptional cases and having regard to the public interest, pass a reasoned order and permit a public work or any project essential to the public or other construction in a prohibited area provided that such construction does not have substantial adverse impact on the preservation, safety, security of, or access to the protected monuments or its immediate surrounding. The use of the expression "such other work or project" in clause (b) of Section 20A(3), if interpreted in isolation, may give an impression that the Central Government or the Director General is empowered to allow any other work or project by any person in the prohibited area but, in our view, the said expression has to be interpreted keeping in view the mandate of Article 49 of the Constitution and the objects sought to be achieved by enacting 1958 Act, i.e. preservation of ancient and historical monuments, archaeological sites and remains of national importance. This would necessarily imply that `such other work or project' must be in larger public interest in contrast to private interest. In other words, in exercise of power under Section 20A(3), the Central Government or the Director General cannot pass an order by employing the stock of words and phrases used in that section and permit any construction by a private person de hors public interest. Any other interpretation of this provision would destroy the very object of the 1958 Act and the prohibition contained in notification dated 16.6.1992 and sub-section (1) of Section 20A would become redundant and we do not think that this would be the correct interpretation of the amended provision. It also needs to be W.P.(C) 6447/2019 Page 10 emphasized that public interest must be the core factor to be considered by the Central Government or the Director General before allowing any construction and in no case the construction should be allowed if the same adversely affects the ancient and historical monuments or archaeological sites."