Hyderabad: Indian lawmaker from Hyderabad and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief, Asaduddin Owaisi, has termed the Gyanvapi Masjid verdict a blatant violation of the Places of Worship Act 1991.
Owaisi’s remarks came after a Varanasi court while hearing the matter on Thursday refused to remove Court commissioner Ajay Mishra and ordered that the video inspection of the Gyanvapi mosque, located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, will continue. Two more lawyers were appointed after the Court commissioner was accused of being biased by the Anjuman Intezamia Mosque Committee. The court added that the video inspection should be completed by Tuesday (May 17).
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the court’s decision is also a violation of the Indian Supreme Court judgment given in the Babri Masjid title dispute. “The order of the court is a blatant violation of the Places of Worship Act 1991. It is a violation of Supreme Court judgment given in the Babri Masjid title dispute,” Owaisi said in a media interview.
As per the Act, “no person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof into a place of worship of a different section of the same religious denomination or of a different religious denomination or any section thereof.”
Further, the Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad asserted that he does not want to lose another masjid, after Babri Masjid.
“This is a blatant violation and I hope that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and the Masjid committee would go to the Supreme Court. I have lost one Babri Masjid and I don’t want to lose another masjid,” he stated.
Owaisi suggested the Uttar Pradesh government to immediately file an FIR against those who try to change the nature of religious places.
The videography of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi sparked a major controversy after a court-ordered video survey of the site. When the videography of the masjid started, the Muslim community raised major protests, with the mosque committee saying that filming inside the place of worship should not be allowed. Web Desk
