Calcutta HC scraps PIL challenging proposed construction of Babri Mosque at Beldanga

Kolkata, Dec 18 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Thursday scrapped the public interest litigation filed challenging the proposed construction of Babri Mosque at Beldanga in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, as proposed by the now-suspended Trinamool Congress legislator Humayun Kabir.

The foundation stone for the mosque was laid on December 6. The proposed Babri Mosque at Beldanga will be in line with the original construction at Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya, which was demolished on December 6, 1992.

As the public interest litigation filed challenging the proposed mosque at Beldanga came up for hearing before the division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen, the bench observed that the petition in the matter had no legal acceptability.

The bench also rejected the argument of the petitioner that Kabir started the construction work for the proposed Babri Mosque without taking prior permission from the district administration. It observed that since the land on which the proposed mosque was being se up was private land and not government land, the petition challenging that construction had no legal acceptability.

In the public interest litigation, the petitioner claimed that the announcements made by Kabir regarding the proposed mosque, along with provocative statements made by him on this issue, could hamper the ambience of communal harmony in the state.

The Trinamool started distancing itself from Kabir since he made the announcement for setting up the Babri Mosque at Beldanga. A couple of days before the foundation stone laying ceremony, he was suspended from the party on charges of anti-party activities.

Kabir has also already announced that he will announce his own political party on December 22, and on that day, he will also announce the names of the office bearers of his political party.

He also announced that his new political outfit will be contesting from over 100 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal in alliance with Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and also with the Left Front, provided the latter agrees to that alliance.