Plea in SC challenges PM Modi offering 'Chadar' at Ajmer Sharif Dargah
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant refused to urgently list a plea seeking to stop PM Modi from offering ceremonial chadar at the tomb of Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chisti at Ajmer Sharif Dargah during the 814th annual Urs.
A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the petitioners to approach the Registry when the matter was presented before them, as the petitioners sought to restrain authorities from offering the ceremonial cloth on behalf of PM Modi.
The lawyers argued that offering the chadar would a send a wrong message because a suit filed by president of the Hindu Sena, Vishnu Gupta, seeking to declare that the Ajmer dargah was built over a pre-existing ancient ‘Bhagwan Shri Sankatmochan Mahadev Virajman Temple’ was pending before a Rajasthan court.
‘We pray for a listing today itself. This is regarding the offer of chadar by the Honourable Prime Minister at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah today. We are seeking a stay of that offer by the Office of the Prime Minister. There is a suit pending in an Ajmer court,’the lawyer submitted.
It is reported that petitioners one Jitender Singh and one Vishnu Gupta termed extending the practice of ‘State-sponsored ceremonial honour, official patronage and symbolic recognition’ to Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti unconstitutional, arbitrary, historically unfounded alongside claiming that it is ‘contrary to the constitutional ethos, dignity and sovereignty of the Republic of India’.
The petitioners submitted that the practice of offering chadar on behalf of Prime Minster was initiated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947, which has since been continuing.