Panaji: The Bombay high court on Wednesday directed the South Goa superintendent of police and the chief officer of the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) to file personal affidavits before March 10, telling it what steps they took, if any, on the complaints of the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) regarding the erection of a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on the latter’s land without seeking permission.Depending on the stand taken in the affidavits, the court will consider issuing further directions in the matter, it stated. During the hearing, the division bench comprising Justices Suman Shyam and Amit Jamsandekar said that it has the utmost respect for the stalwart, but that the matter in question amounted to taking the law into one’s own hands.“There’s no difficulty, statues can be erected. The only point here is, can someone get into somebody else’s land and forcefully erect a statue? That is taking the law into their own hands… that we will not allow for anyone,” the bench said. “It’s a beautiful statue; let it be erected somewhere, but not in this manner.”The MPA told the court that lawmakers themselves were abetting this, as the statue was unveiled by the MLA of the area and two councillors. It also produced videos of their speeches on a pen drive.It added that every night construction continued, with a concrete platform now erected, and that its fence was also broken. The MPA stated that it filed complaints with the MMC and the police, but no action was taken. Advocate general Devidas Pangam told the court that, like municipalities, the MPA has powers to remove the statue, but was not ready to invoke its own powers under the Major Port Trust Act and wanted state govt to invoke its own powers.
