The crass dishonesty of former CJI Chandrachud
The floodgates have been opened
By Justice Katju
After former Chief Justice of India Chandrachud’s dishonest ‘sleight of hand’ in permitting ‘surveys’ of mosques and dargahs, despite the Places of Worship Act, 1991, the floodgates for destruction of Muslim shrines have been opened, with the largely dishonest Indian judiciary being hand in glove with the BJP ( which will be the main beneficiary in this sordid and sleazy affair) and the largely dishonest police. This portends to tear apart India’s social fabric, and reveals the secularism in the Indian Constitution to be an empty shell.
The hurried order of a Court in Sambhal for survey of the Jama Masjid in Sambhal, UP ( without even hearing the management of the mosque), and the entertainment of a suit praying for survey of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah are apparently only the beginning of filing of scores of such suits praying for ‘surveys’ of masjids and dargahs, which may culminate in their destruction, after ‘discovery’ of remnants of Hindu temples on the site.
After CJI Chandrachud retired, and Justice Sabjiv Khanna took over as the new CJI, an appeal was filled in the Supreme Court challenging the order of the Sambhal court directing a survey. On that petition, the Court passed an order staying proceedings in the suit as well as the order of survey, and directing the management of the mosque to approach the Allahabad High Court
A suit with a similar prayer has also been filed relating to a mosque in Badaun, UP
I regret to say that the order of the Supreme Court, has deeply disappointed me.
All that the Court should have done was to grant a week’s time to the respondents to reply why the suit was not barred by the Places of Worship Act, and stayed proceedings in the meantime.
After a week the suit should have been dismissed, as the Jama Masjid, Sambhal was clearly built long before 15.8.1947.
It is shocking that the Sambhal court even took cognizance of the case. The Jama Masjid at Sambhal was built about 500 years ago, ie long before 15.8.1947, and therefore the suit was clearly barred by the POW Act.
Moreover, there was no justification for the Supreme Court to have directed the management of the mosque to approach the High Court. By not disposing of the matter itself, the Supreme Court has allowed exponential escalation in the number of similar cases, instead of laying down the law definitively and enforcing the POW Act, to put a quietus to all such disputes.
I am suspecting that the new CJI, whose uncle Justice HR Khanna is one of my heroes ( for his brave dissent in the ADM Jabalpur vs Shivakant Shukla case), is disinclined to say that the suits in Varanasi, Mathura, Sambhal, Ajmer and elsewhere are barred by the POW Act, for fear of displeasing the BJP government. But let us see
