PTI 

Mumbai, Jun 22: Observing that places of worship would not be allowed to come up in violation of rules, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday fixed July 19 as the deadline for demolition of illegal shrines in the city.

Hearing a public interest litigation filed by Janhit Manch, a bench comprising Justice R Lodha and Justice A Bagga ordered the the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to demolish all the illegal shrines by July 19 without fail.

BMC informed the judges that illegal shrines had come up in blatant violation of rules two years ago, and were demolished in keeping with the order of the high court.

However, some of the illegal shrines had resurfaced and the civic body had demolished about 1100 shrines recently in keeping with the directive of the court.

Most of these shrines were located either in the middle of the road or on footpaths, thereby creating obstruction in the way of pedestrians and vehicular traffic, the BMC submitted.

The court asked the BMC to strictly implement its orders in this regard.