In a case involving INS Virat, the Supreme Court has indicated that the ban on breaking a warship of INS Virat has been lifted. The Supreme Court had announced a moratorium on the demolition of the historic vessel after retiring from the Navy in February 2017. The court has asked the Mumbai-based company to focus on its supervision report. The next hearing in the case will now be a week later.
INS Virat has been on the beach since September 2020 at the ship-breaking yard at Alang. Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobade said that the ship is now a private property and 40 percent has already been demolished. Therefore, this ship can no longer be granted aircraft carrier status. The ship-buying company of Mumbai had also argued that 40 per cent of the ship had been damaged. Earlier, the court had on February 10 issued a notice to the Mumbai-based company, which had bought the historic warship INS Virat, preventing it from breaking.
‘INS Virat’ joined the Navy in 1987: a petition was filed in the Supreme Court. The petitioner had said that it was better to dismantle the vessel and turn it into a museum. The petitioner had expressed a desire to preserve the vessel. The company had deposited an amount of Rs 100 crore for the purchase. Whereas a Mumbai firm bought it for scrap. The aircraft carrier Virat was inducted into the Indian Navy in 1987. Man-of-war was removed from the Navy in 2017.
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