Ayodhya [Day-5] The Matter Should Be Considered by A Five/Seven Judge Constitution Bench :Rajeev Dhavan [Read the Written Submissions]

Rajeev Dhavan, on Tuesday, warned of contempt proceedings on the ground of certain remarks pertaining to the Ayodhya matter which is sub judice, “while this case is being argued, people should restrain themselves like we have.we have considered contempt.I would caution all not to muddy the waters”.As the hearing in the string of appeals against the 2010 judgment of the Allahabad. As the hearing in the string of appeals against the 2010 judgment of the Allahabad High Court resumed before the Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Abdul Nazeer, Senior Counsel Rajiv Dhavan advanced submissions on concepts of ‘essentiality’ and ‘integrality’ of a religious practice to a religion, in the light of the 1994 Ismail Farooqui judgment. In so far as it has been observed therein that “While offer of prayer or worship is a religious practice, its offering at every location where such prayers can be offered would not be an essential or integral part of such religious practice, unless the place has a particular significance for that religion so as to form an essential or integral part thereof”, he contended, “this is complete denudation of the Essential Practices Doctrine.by virtue of Article 25, one cannot say that only the famous mosques and not the others shall be protected.” Dr. Dhavan relied on Sri Adi Visheshwara of Kashi Vishwanath Temple v. State of UP, wherein the apex court had observed that in determining whether the particular matters of religion or practices or belief are an integral part of the religion, It must be examined if the practices or matters are considered integral by the community itself and not be governed solely by the concept of essentiality. Aslam v. UOI, in so far as, in context of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, it was observed therein, “The gravamen of the charge in these contempt petitions is that Shri Kalyan Singh, the then Chief Minister of the State, in view of his ideological and political affinity with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and their commitment to the building of Sri Ram temple, deliberately encouraged and permitted the grossest violation of the Courts' orders” “This is the reality of what had happened.The reason I am mentioning this judgment is because Ismail Farooqui takes a light view of of the incident of demolition by stating that the Hindu community has to ‘bear the cross on its chest’ for the acts of ‘miscreants’ suspected to belong to the same religious fold.”, he remarked.