SC asks for original plan in 3 months

The Supreme Court yesterday directed the parliament secretariat to submit before it in three months the original master plan of Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban designed by famous architect Louis I Kahn.

The Appellate Division of the SC passed the order during hearing an appeal filed by the government against a High Court verdict that had declared the residences of the Speaker and deputy speaker near the parliament building illegal 11 years back.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha also adjourned the hearing of the appeal for three months.

During yesterday's hearing, Additional Attorney General Murad Reza told the apex court that the HC in June 2004 declared the residences of the Speaker and deputy speaker in the parliament complex illegal without examining the original master plan of Louis I Kahn.

The residences cannot be declared illegal without examining the master plan, which is now in the archive of the State University of Pennsylvania in the USA, he said.

He said the government has taken steps to collect the master plan, as the prime minister has wished to see it.

Murad Reza said the HC had asked the government to take steps to announce the parliament building as part of a national heritage, and to apply to the Unesco for its recognition as a World Heritage Site.

The HC cannot pass such a directive as the parliament building is the symbol of national sovereignty, the additional attorney general argued.

Writ petitioners' counsel Tanjib-Ul Alam told The Daily Star that they would contest the government's appeal before the apex court in order to uphold the HC judgment.

Following a writ petition jointly filed by the Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB) and Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (Bapa), the HC on June 21, 2004, declared residences of the Speaker and deputy speaker in the parliament complex illegal on charge of distorting the original design of Louis I Kahn's 1973 masterpiece.

Later, the Appellate Division had stayed the HC judgment following an appeal filed by the government. The construction of the Sangsad Bhaban began in 1962 and took 12 years to finish.

 The Awami League government during its first tenure had reportedly first come up with the idea of building the residences of the Speaker and deputy speaker in the parliament complex. But it was stalled in the face of widespread protests.

Ignoring all protests, the BNP-led coalition government started constructing the two residences in an open space on the western side of the Sangsad Bhaban on October 25, 2002. The construction was complete in 2004.