ASI director hit with contempt
The Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to the Director of the Archaeological Survey of India for failing to file an affidavit on Delhi heritage sites — the Director must personally appear on April 13. (livelaw.in)
A bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and N. Kotiswar Singh heard a petition by Rajeev Suri that began with encroachment at the Gumti of Shaikh Ali and was widened to cover 173 notified Delhi monuments. (livelaw.in(livelaw.in)) The court recorded that its February 2, 2026 order had required detailed, monument-wise status reports and that Court Commissioner Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan placed a summary before the bench showing 173 monuments fall under ASI jurisdiction, but no affidavit was filed by the ASI. (livelaw.in(livelaw.in)) The GNCTD Department of Archaeology inspected 19 sites but submitted only general statements and omitted key particulars such as precise location identification and geo-mapping, prompting the court to order a fresh, monument-wise affidavit with up-to-date photographs. (barandbench.com(barandbench.com)) The bench found the Municipal Corporation of Delhi had surveyed 62 of 85 identified monuments while the New Delhi Municipal Council had surveyed only 2 of 54, and it directed both civic bodies to file detailed affidavits giving the actual position and compliance measures for each monument. (barandbench.com(barandbench.com)) News reports identified the ASI Director General named in the showcause notice as Yadubir Singh Rawat, the officer who heads the Archaeological Survey of India. (business-standard.com(business-standard.com)) The bench said it took “strong exception” to what it described as a deliberate violation of its directions and issued a show-cause notice asking the DG to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated. (livelaw.in(livelaw.in))
