Muslim body moves SC against plea to open Kashi, Mathura disputes

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 14

A day after a Hindu organisation sought to open Kashi, Mathura temple disputes by challenging the validity of a 1991 Act that prohibited changing the character of religious places, a Muslim organisation moved the Supreme Court against it, saying it would open floodgates of litigation against countless mosques.

The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind urged the top court not to entertain the petition filed by the Vishwa Bhadra Pujari Purohit Mahasangh that said the impugned Act protected the “barbarous action of invaders”.

“Even issuance of notice in the present matter will create fear in the minds of the Muslim community with regard to their places of worship, especially in the aftermath of the Ayodhya dispute and will destroy the secular fabric of the nation,” Jamiat said in its intervention application filed on Saturday.

“It was pointed out during the hearing of Ayodhya case… that there is a list of numerous mosques which is doing the rounds on social media, alleging that the said mosques were built allegedly by destroying Hindu places of worship,” it said.