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News Topical, Digital Desk : The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking direction to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from offering a ceremonial 'chadar' (veil) at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, saying the issue was not justiciable.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi refused to hear the plea, which also challenged the state-sponsored ceremonial honours and symbolic recognition given to Islamic scholar Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and the Ajmer Dargah by the central government and its agencies.
Supreme Court dismisses PM Modi's Chadar petition
Advocate Varun Sinha, appearing for petitioner Jitendra Singh and others, said the practice of the Prime Minister offering 'chadar' at the Ajmer Dargah of Moinuddin Chishti (which was started by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947) has been continuing since then without any legal or constitutional basis.
CJI Kant told Sinha, “The court will not comment as the issue is not justiciable.” Sinha said a civil suit is pending in the trial court claiming that the dargah was built on the ruins of a Shiva temple.
The court refused to consider it a justiciable issue.
The Supreme Court clarified that the dismissal of the writ petition would have no impact on the pending civil suit. CJI Kant said, "You go and seek appropriate relief in the civil suit." Petitioners Jitendra Singh and others stated that they were aggrieved by the continued practice of state-sponsored ceremonial honours, official patronage, and symbolic recognition accorded to Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti by various agencies of the central government.
His petition said, 'Historical records show that Moinuddin Chishti was associated with foreign invasions that conquered Delhi and Ajmer and carried out large-scale repression and conversion of the native population, actions that are fundamentally contrary to the sovereignty, dignity and civilisational ethos of India.'
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