Earlier this month, former Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton Nariman criticised the 5 judge bench that delivered the Ayodhya Ram Mandir verdict 5 years ago saying that the verdict was nothing but a ‘mockery of justice’. In an ANI podcast, senior advocate J Sai Deepak slammed Nariman for his controversial remarks.
“It’s very unfair. When members of a particular institution say that this institution has gone downhill after my exit that I think is too much of a statement to me. And two, some of his statements both on history and especially contentious aspects of history and let’s say his specific points on the Ram Mandir case are as inaccurate as they can get. To say that there were no findings whatsoever from the Supreme Court on the existence of a temple underneath the disputed structure, call it only the disputed structure and nothing else, is false. It’s provably, demonstrably and patently false,” advocate J Sai Deepak said.
“Read the Allahabad High Court judgement, read the addendum to the judgement of the Supreme Court and then you will see that there are instances where they say Guru Nanak visits once there was a Mandir, Guru Nanak visits again and then the temple was not there. So what happened in between? Earthquake? There are corroborating records and you’re telling me that a general pattern of behaviour that has been witnessed across the subcontinent and the world, you’re telling me suddenly did not happen here. So we are not the playground for expansionist ideologies. We are only asking for what belongs to us through a court of law. What is unreasonable about this position?” Sai Deepak continued adding that contrary to Nariman’s assertion, the Supreme Court did not stop short in identifying the existence of a temple but only on who was responsible for the destruction of the temple.
As reported earlier, On Thursday, 6th December, former Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton Nariman criticized the 5 judge bench that delivered the Ayodhya verdict 5 years ago and said that the verdict was nothing but a ‘mockery of justice’ that violated the basic principle of secularism. Justice Nariman delivered the inaugural lecture of the Ahmadi Foundation, which was established in remembrance of Justice Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi, the 26th Chief Justice of India (CJI). While delivering the lecture he said, “We find today, like hydra heads popping up all over the country, there is suit after suit filed all over the place. Now not only concerning mosques but also dargahs. All this can lead to communal tension and disharmony, contrary to what is envisaged in both our Constitution and the Places of Worship Act.”
Justice Nariman stated that the five-judge constitution bench that issued the ruling in 2019 further elaborated on the purpose of the Places of Worship Act. “This very Constitution Bench spends five pages on it and says that in secularism, which is a part of the Basic Structure, you cannot look backwards, you have to look forward… Every religious place of worship is frozen until 15th August 1947. Now, anybody who tries to change this, those suits will stand dismissed,” he added.