NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi leader Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay has sought to implead himself before the Supreme Court in the Gyanvapi Masjid case of Varanasi.
Earlier, he had moved the top court, challenging the Constitutional validity of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991.
His stand is that any structure built on temple land cannot be a mosque. He claims the temple’s religious character does not change after the demolition of roof, walls, pillars and foundations or offering Namaz.
“After the Pran Pratishtha of an idol, a temple is always a temple until the idol is shifted to another temple with the rituals of Visharjan. Moreover, the Religious Character of the Temple (Place of Worship) and Mosque (Place of Prayer) is totally different. So, the same law can`t be applied to both,” said the application by Upadhyay.
Upadhyay’s application says: The application further stated, “The mosque constructed on temple land cannot be a mosque, not only for the reason that such construction is against Islamic law, but also on grounds that the property once vested in the deity continues to be deity`s property and right of deity and devotees are never lost, howsoever long illegal encroachment continues on such property.”
It sought impleadment in the Gyanvapi case stating that only those places of worship should be protected, which were erected or constructed in accordance with the personal law of the person who erected/constructed them, but places erected or constructed in derogation of the personal law, cannot be termed as a `place of worship`.
