Monday, February 14 2005 17:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Buoyed by the incident-free three months of moonlit viewing of world heritage monument of love-Taj Mahal, the Supreme Court today (Feb 14, 2005) extended the "feast for eye" privilege by another year.

A Bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal, Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia took note of the submissions of amicus curiae Krishan Mahajan and extended the time period for a year, while asking the authorities not to relax the security measures and procedure followed till date.

After a gap of 22 years, the Apex Court three months back had thrown open the 17th century Mughal monument to visitors for five moonlit nights, which had been a "feast for eyes", as the beauty of the white marble structure housing the tombs of Mughal emperor Shahjehan and his lady love Mumtaj Mahal, gives an altogether different view in bright moon light.

The Court asked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to construct the facilitation Centre at Taj within two months but directed it not to tamper with any of the outerwalls of the structure without prior permission from the Court.

Appearing for the ASI, advocate A D N Rao said that there was no proposal from the ASI to break any of the outerwalls of the monument for the construction of the facilitation Centre.