Mumbai: Four law students filed a PIL with the Bombay High Court on Saturday, challenging the Maharashtra government's decision to declare a public holiday on January 22 to commemorate the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
The petitioners filed an application with the High Court requesting that a special bench hear their case on Sunday. The plea would most likely be heard by a bench of Justice Girish S Kulkarni and Justice Neela K Gokhale.
The petitioners, law students from Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU), Government Law College (GLC), Mumbai, and NIRMA Law University, Gujarat, sought to quash the January 19 notification of the state government saying that “any policy regarding declaration of public holidays cannot be at the whims and fancies of the political party in power.” Pending the hearing of the plea, they have sought to stay on the effect of the notification, the Indian Express reported.
“Holiday can be declared perhaps to commemorate a patriotic personality or historic figure but not to celebrate the consecration of Ram Lalla to appease a particular section of the society or religious community,” the petition states.
Shivangi Agarwal, Satyajeet Salve, Vedant Agrawal, and Khushi Bangia also challenged a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on May 8, 1968, empowering states to designate public holidays under the Negotiable Instruments Act.
The petitioners claimed declaring a public holiday would “lead to loss of education if the educational institutions are closed, financial loss if banking institutions are closed, and loss of governance and public works if government and public offices are closed”.
“In the absence of legislation conferring power to declare a public holiday on the State governments and without there being guidelines which are secular in nature, such declarations to appease a majority community that too for political purposes would be a sheer abuse of power and would destroy the secular fabric of India,” the plea added.
The PIL claimed declaring a holiday to celebrate the Ram Mandir’s consecration was “nothing but expending from Government exchequer for religious purposes which is expressly prohibited by Article 27 (no person can be taxed for promoting a religion or maintaining a religious institution) of the Constitution.”