The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a plea against the further dismantling of aircraft carrier INS Viraat following its decommissioning by the Navy in 2017 and to convert it into a museum.
With the dismissal of the plea, the legal battle continued for more than a year to save the decades-old Navy carrier came to an end.
“We are with you as far as the spirit of nationalism is concerned, but you are already too late in this case,” a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde told the petitioner.
“Forty per cent of the ship has been dismantled. We cannot interfere now. [The] government has already taken a decision,” the court asserted.
A Mumbai-based maritime consultancy firm Envitech Marine Consultants Private Limited was making efforts to turn it into a maritime museum — like the Cutty Sark in London or a score of ships in the US — in collaboration with the government of Goa.
The company said INS Viraat was sold to Shree Ram shipbreakers for Rs 38 crore after it was decommissioned and added that the company offered up to Rs 100 crores to buy the warship from the Shree Ram shipbreakers.
The centaur-class aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, was in service with the Indian Navy for 29 years before being decommissioned in March 2017.
