In a major embarrassment for the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a six-member committee set up in 2006 to grant permission for construction near protected monuments and heritage sites has been declared illegal by the Delhi High Court.

The panel, however, has already processed 400 applications for such illegal constructions on prime properties worth crores from all over the country, and over 150 such applications from Delhi itself.

As per a 1992 ASI notification, area up to 100 metres from protected monuments is treated as “prohibited” for construction.

The Delhi High Court on Friday declared “that the setting up of the committee by the ASI with the approval of the Union Minister for Culture and Tourism... on grant of permission for construction in a prohibited area was wholly without any legal basis”.

“We are very concerned that the ASI, which is entrusted with the constitutional and statutory responsibility to ensure preservation of our protected monuments, is facilitating the violation of a notification dated June 16, 1992,” a Division Bench led by Chief Justice A P Shah observed.

The court passed stern directions to the ASI to stop accepting such applications. It also granted the body four weeks to review all past decisions.

The decision comes in a petition filed by a Supreme Court lawyer who challenged the legality of construction work within 100 metres of the Humayun Tomb and a 450-year-old monument at Nizamuddin East in South Delhi.