(a) Where rights have been acquired in respect of any monument under this Act by virtue of any sale, lese, gift or will, relinquish, by notification in the official Gazette, the rights so acquired to the person who would for the time being is the owner of the monument as if such rights had not been acquired; or
(b) relinquish any guardianship of a monument which he has accepted or assumed under this Act.
17. Penalties –
(1) Whowever –
(i) destroys, injures, mutilates, defaces, alters, removes, disperses, misuses, imperils or allows to fall into decay a protected monument, or
(ii) removes from a protected monument any sculpture, carving image, bas-relief, inscription or other like object, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees or with both.
(2)Whoever –
(i) being the owner or occupier of protected monument, contravenes an order made under section 7 or section 10, or
(ii) contravenes any other provision of this chapter for which contravention no punishment is provided for elsewhere therein, shall be punishable with the like punishment.
18. Power to control mining etc. near protected monuments –
(1) If the State Government is of opinion that mining, quarrying, excavating, blasting and other operations of a like nature should be restricted or regulated monument, the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, make rules –
(a) fixing the boundaries of the area to which the rules are to apply,
(b) forbidding the carrying on of mining, quarrying, excavating, blasting or other operation of a like nature except in accordance with such rules and otherwise than under and in accordance with terms of a license, and
(c) prescribing the authority by which, and the terms on which licenses may be granted to carry on any of the said operations.
(2) A rule made under this section may provide that any person committing a breach thereof shall be punishable with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees.
19. Preservation of amenities of or to protected monuments –
(1) If the State Government is of opinion that for the purpose of preserving amenities to or of any protected monument it is necessary so to do, the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, in respect of any area comprising or adjacent to the site of such monument and specified in such notification (hereinafter referred to as the controlled area).
(a) prohibit or restrict the construction, erection or execution of buildings, structures and other works above ground within the controlled area, or the alteration or extension of any such buildings, structures or works in such manner as materially to affect their external appearance ;
(b) prescribe the position, height, size, design, materials, colour and screening, and otherwise regulate the external appearance, of buildings, structures and other works above ground within the controlled area ;
(c) require any local authority –
(i) to construct any approach road to any protected monument, or
(ii) to demolish any place of public convenience vesting in it, that is to say a latrine, urinal, dustbin and the like, located close to in the vicinity of any protected monument ;
(d) prohibits or restrict the falling of trees with in the controlled area;
(e) otherwise restrict the user of land within the controlled area to such extent as may appear to the State Government to be expedient for the purpose of preserving the amenities to or of the protected monument;
(f) provide for such matters as appear to the State Government to be incidental to or consequential on the foregain provisions of this section or to be necessary for giving effect to those provisions.
(2) Not less than forty-five days before issuing a notification under sub-section (1) the State Government shall cause to be published in the Official Gazette, in the controlled area and in the village and as the headquarters of the tehsil in which the controlled area is situated a notification stating that it proposes to issue a notification in terms of sub-section (1), together with a notice requiring all persons affected by such notification, who wish to make any objections to the issuing of such a notification, to submit their objections in writing to the State Government or to appear before any officer duly authorised in that behalf to hear objections on behalf of the State Government, within one month of the publication of the notification in the Official Gazette or within fifteen days from the date of the publication of the notification in the controlled area, whichever period expires later.
(3) If, before the expiration of the time allowed by sub-section (2) for the filling of objections, no objections has been made, the State Government shall proceed at one to issue the notification under sub-section (1) If any such objection has been made, the State Government, after all the objections have been considered or heard, as the case may be, may either –
(a).abandon the proposal to issue the notification (1), or
(b).issue the notification under sub-section (1) with such modification as it thinks fit.
(4) In considering the objections, the decision of the State Government on the question of issuing the notification under sub-section (1) shall be final and conclusive.
(5) Nothing contained in any notification under sub-section (1) shall affect any building, structure or other work above ground or any alteration or extension thereof, if it was constructed, erected or executed before the date when notice of intention to issue a notification was given under sub-section (2), and for the purpose of this provision a building, structure or other work and any alteration or extension thereof shall be deemed to have been constructed, effected or executed before that date –
(a). if its construction, erection or execution was begun before that date, or
(b). if and so far as its construction, erection or execution was necessary for the purpose of performing a contract made before that date.
(6) If any person contravenes any of the provisions of a notification issued under sub-section
(1), he shall, on conviction, be punished with fine not exceeding one hundred rupees for every day on which the contravention occure or continues.
(7) If, after any person has been convicted under sub-section (6) by reason of the fact that any b uilding, structure or other work is not in conformity with the provisions of the notification issued under sub-section (1), the contravention continues after the expiration of such period as the court before whom he was convicted may determine, the State Government shall have power to do all such acts as in its opinion are necessary for removing so much of the building, structure or work as is not in conformity with the provisions of the notification aforesaid for making it conform with the provisions of the notification and any recoverable as an arrear of land revenue from the person convicted.
20. Right of access to protected monuments –
(1) Subject to any rules made under this Act, the public shall have a right of access to every protected monument.
(2) In making any rule under sub-section (1) the State Government may provide that a breach of it shall be punishable with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees.
"20A. Power to entrance fee.- (1) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, levy entrance fee in respect of such protected monuments, and at such rates not exceeding two thousand five hundred rupees per head, as may be specified in such notification :-
Provided that if the State Government is of the opinion that it is expedient in the public interest so to do, it may by like notification, exempt, wholly or partly, any class of persons from the payment of entrance fee.
(2) Such entrance fee when so levied shall be collected in accordance with the rules made under this Act"
CHAPTER III Protected Areas