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A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh of the Delhi High Court today refused to entertain a public interest litigation seeking the removal of content from NCERT's history textbooks, to the effect that Mughal rulers Shahjahan and Aurangzeb commissioned repair work of Hindu temples destroyed by Mughals during wars. The petitioner, one Sanjeev Vikal pressed before Court that with no evidence to back the claim and an RTI in this regard revealing the same, the unfounded claim ought to be removed from the textbook as "crores of students of the 12th grade" would be reading it.
The petitioner also submitted that this was an attempt to "glorify the image of the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb" who was otherwise one of the most "fierce" emperors of the time. However, the Court was not convinced of the arguments or the petition, and said that it would dismiss the same with costs, unless withdrawn.
Refusing to entertain the petition, the bench said, "You have objections that Shahjahan and Aurangzeb had no such policies for giving grants for temples? You are falling in a zone of costs... We are unable to decide on present policies of Central and State governments and here you want to go into some error committed by Aurangzeb and Shah Jahan's policies."
Chief Justice DN Patel went on to say, "It may be right, it may be wrong, why should the High Court decide? We are unable to decide on the Centre and State's policies and you are talking about Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb's policies? This is a wastage of time of the Court."
Unrelentingly, the Court went on, "Aap logon ke paas kitna free time hai? (How much free time do you people have?) Mann mein jo bhi raat ko baithe baithe tukka aaya, kar do subha petition (Whatever random ideas you people get at night, you move a petition in the morning)." The Court also advised the petitioner that these "champions of useless PILs" should instead file PILs on evasion of taxes. Cause Title: Sanjeev Vikal & Anr vs Union of India & Ors.
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