LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the opening of 22 closed rooms on the Taj Mahal premises and asked the petitioner not to mock the PIL system.
Reprimanding the petitioner, the division bench, comprising Justice DK Upadhyay and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi, stated, “Tomorrow you will come and ask to go to chambers of honourable judges. Please don't make a mockery of the PIL system.”
The petition was filed by Dr Rajneesh Singh, who claimed to be the BJP’s youth wing media in-charge of Ayodhya. Through the PIL, the petitioner had sought directions from the court to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to open 22 closed rooms in the Taj Mahal to ascertain the presence of idols of Hindu deities.
The plea, filed through advocate Rudra Vikram Singh, sought the constitution of a fact-finding committee and the submission of a report by the ASI. The plea also cited the claims allegedly made by some historians and some right wing groups about the monument being an old Shiv Temple which was known as Tejo Mahalaya.
The petitioner had argued that the citizens of the country needed to know the truth about the Taj Mahal. He said his main concern was the closed rooms and everyone should know what was behind those closed doors. During the hearing, the bench told the petitioner that such debates were welcome in informal settings, but not in a court of law. Expressing its displeasure at the petition, the court asked the petition if those issues were debatable in a court of law. “Are we judges trained and equipped with such things?" asked the court.
Over the petitioner's argument in connection with "right to information", the bench said: "Please enroll yourself in MA, then go for NET, JRF and if any university denies you to research on such topic then come to us."
However, the state opposed the plea on grounds of lack of jurisdiction. There was already a suit filed in Agra. Earlier also such claims regarding Taj Mahal being "Tejo Mahalaya" had surfaced before the courts. In response to a suit filed in Agra by six advocates claiming that the Taj Mahal is Tejo Mahalaya Temple palace, the central government had argued in 2017 that the claim was “concocted” and “self-built”.