From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Muslims have braced up to fight the Varanasi district judge’s verdict on September 12 to allow the Hindus pray in the city’s Gyanvapi Mosque in the Allahabad High Court and even go up to the Supreme Court for maintenance of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 rejecting any dispute at all religious places, except the Babri Mosque, as exited in 1947.
All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) general secretary Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani says the district judge has gone against the 1991 law despite the Supreme Court declaring it as mandatory.
“It is pity that the judge ignored the 1991 law and allowed the petition instead of dismissing the petitions brought by those who want to serve hatred and who don’t care for the country’s unity.” He said the district judge’s word is not final in accepting the claim of the Hindu groups as the Muslim bodies will go up to the Supreme Court to implement the 1991 law brought specifically to prevent the religious disputes on the religious places that existed before the Independence.
Athar Husain, secretary, Indo Islamic Culture Fondation (IICF), a trust of the Sunni Central Waqf Board building a mosque at Dhannipur village in Allahabad, said: “All the law-abiding citizens, including the Muslims, believe in the Places of Worship Act, 1991 and they will ensure that the character of no other religious place in India will be changed as this is a part of the Ayodhya verdict by the 5-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court and it has to be accepted in totality by all Indians.”
The managing committee of the Gyanvapi Mosque has already engaged a battery of lawyers to study the district judge’s verdict and challenge it before the Allahabad High Court.
Rekha Pathak, a woman plaintiff in the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri case, has already filed a caveat in the Allahabad high court to ensure that her side is heard before any decision.
