Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday rejected a PIL seeking to preserve India's first aircraft carrier 'Vikrant' by converting it into a maritime museum.
The Maharashtra government argued that the project of having a maritime museum on the ship was not viable considering the expenditure involved, while the Centre submitted that the ship's life was over and therefore it would be dangerous to house a museum on the carrier.
Additional Solicitor General Kevic Setalvad for the Union government said the state government had withdrawn the proposal to convert the ship into a maritime museum. The bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah said, "we will be happy if 'Vikrant' (converted) into a maritime museum but we cannot force the state to do that. It is the choice of the government to have a maritime museum on the ship or erect a statue (of Chhatrapti Shivaji) in the sea. It depends on their policy".
The bench also referred to a suggestion in certain quarters that river waters, which were discharged into the Arabian sea, be diverted to drought-prone areas in the state. "Even this would depend on the choice of the state whether or not to divert the river waters to drought-prone areas", the Judges said.
The PIL filed by Kiran Paigankar had also sought a direction to the Union government to not auction off the ship as scrap and preserve it as the maritime museum. The Defence ministry filed an affidavit saying "INS Vikrant's hull is over 70 years old. It was decommissioned on completion of its operational life. It would be in the best interest of the naval services to dispose of such ships as expeditiously as possible."
"At a certain stage, ships can no longer be economically refurbished or repaired. Maintenance and berthing of such ships requires heavy expenditure of public funds," the affidavit said.
The Union ministry in its affidavit further said that the Indian Navy has been actively involved in preserving and maintaining INS Vikrant until now. According to the affidavit, the Navy has till now spent Rs 22 crores for repairs and dry dockings of the ship.
"Considerable amount of expenditure has been incurred in maintaining the ship pending its conversion to a museum as the Maharashtra government had proposed to the defence ministry in 1998," said the affidavit filed by Admiral Shankar Mathur, chief staff officer of the Western Naval Command.
"Since then the state government has neither arranged an alternate berth for the ship nor did they accept the responsibility of safety of the ship. It has also been unable to convert the ship into a museum". "The Navy has given their full and active support to the government but the same has not yielded any desired results," the affidavit said adding that the ship was in a dangerous position and needs to be disposed of urgently.
The PIL had also sought quashing of the tender issued by the Ministry inviting bids for scrapping the ship. The auction is slated to be held on January 29.
The PIL contended that if INS Vikrant is converted into a museum the tourism and culture department of Maharashtra will get benefit. "Vikrant has remarkably contributed in a historical victory of India over Pakistan in 1971 and it should not be scrapped", the petition said.
Additional Solicitor General Kevic Setalwad, however, informed the court that 'Vikrant' had been damaged to such an extent that she cannot be kept even in a dry dockyard. It is impossible to maintain the carrier now, he argued.
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