Bengaluru: The JD(S) has filed a complaint with Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Meena regarding tweets by an account holder against party senior leaders HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy.

In a letter on Sunday, AP Ranganatha, president of the state legal cell of the JD(S), told the CEO that ‘blatantly false tweets’ were posted late in the day, to vilify the images of the said leaders of the party.

The legal cell head has also asked the officer to take immediate action in the matter.

 

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New Delhi: Justice Rohinton Nariman, former Supreme Court judge, has urged that the five pages of the Supreme Court's Ayodhya judgment affirming the Places of Worship Act, 1991, be read in every District Court and High Court across India. He stated that this would prevent frivolous suits against mosques and other religious structures.

Speaking at the inaugural lecture of the Ahmadi Foundation, established in memory of former Chief Justice of India Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi, Justice Nariman described the Ayodhya verdict as a "travesty of justice to secularism." However, he identified the segment upholding the 1991 Act as a "silver lining."

"The Constitution Bench spends five pages on the Places of Worship Act and declares it to be sound in secularism, which is part of the basic structure of our Constitution. You cannot look backward; you have to look forward," Justice Nariman emphasised.

These five pages, he suggested, could serve as a critical tool to address the rising number of cases targeting mosques and shrines across the country.

Since 2019, numerous civil suits have been filed, particularly in northern India, demanding the restoration of temples allegedly destroyed in the past to build mosques. A recent example is the Sambhal Jamia Masjid case, where a civil court ordered a survey based on claims that a temple once stood on the mosque's site.

The 1991 Act prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and maintains the religious character of sites as they existed on August 15, 1947. It is currently under challenge in the Supreme Court. Justice Nariman referred to the Constitution Bench's Ayodhya judgment, which hailed the Act as "a legislative instrument designed to protect secular values."

"The law imposes a non-derogable obligation to uphold our constitutional commitment to secularism," the Supreme Court had observed in its 2019 ruling.

Justice Nariman reiterated the importance of the Act, stating, "It freezes the places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947. To prevent further claims, the law must be implemented as outlined in the judgment."

He added, "We see hydra heads popping up all over the country with suit after suit concerning mosques and shrines. The only way to cauterise this is by applying those five pages of the Ayodhya judgment in courts nationwide."

He further remarked on the quid pro quo judicial appointments, commenting on the case of the judge who acquitted all accused in the Babri Masjid demolition criminal conspiracy case, saying, "That judge was appointed as the UP Lokayukta after retirement. That is the 'state of affairs' in the country.”

The lecture was part of the Ahmadi Foundation’s inaugural event, where a biography titled The Fearless Judge, chronicling Justice Ahmadi's life, was also released.

Justice Nariman concluded by expressing confidence that proper implementation of the Places of Worship Act would curtail unnecessary litigation and uphold secular principles enshrined in the Indian Constitution.