Land belonging to a religious body can be acquired for a public purpose, ruled the Allahabad High Court in its order of December 19, 2016. "Once there is public purpose for which land in question has been acquired, invoking provisions of National Highways Act, 1956, then no relief can be accorded to the petitioner,” stated the division bench comprising Justices V. K. Shukla and M. C. Tripathi, while disposing of the plea of the Church of North India Association (CNIA). The Church had challenged a notification of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) of August 17, 2012 whereby four plots of land were acquired in Firozabad District to construct a bypass connecting Agra with Etawah in Uttar Pradesh on the six-lane highway, reported Live Mint in its e-edition of December 24, 2016.
The CNIA had maintained that the notification "hurts the sentiments and religious conscience of the Christian community.” It also violates the "right to freedom of religion… (and the) freedom to manage religious affairs guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution as well as of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which safeguards all religious properties.” The Court ruled that the said Act only "bars any person from converting any place of worship of any religious denomination or different religious denomination (and that the) provision had been introduced to see that communal harmony is not disturbed and persons of one religious community may not take on the other,” reported Live Mint.
However, the bench stated that the church structures should not be demolished "for a period of one month” because Christmas was just around the corner, but the Church and NHAI should "work out modality” for "demolition or shifting of the structures,” the e-paper noted. The bench accepted the Church counsel’s plea that "it would be too harsh to demolish the church at this point of time, i.e. on Christmas eve… and thereafter, the petitioner in consultation with NHAI would see and ensue demolition/shifting of the church as well as of the graveyard.”