SC rejects PIL for construction of mosque wall in UP

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a public interest litigation seeking reconstruction of the boundary wall of a mosque in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh which was allegedly demolished on orders of sub-divisional magistrate Durga Sakthi Nagpal in July.

A bench of Justices H L Dattu and V Gopala Gowda chided the petitioner, Delhi-based NGO Sanskar Sanskriti Trust and its chief Omkarnath, for filing such PILs and wondered whether it deserved to pay cost for frivolous litigation.

"Should the court direct reconstruction of a mosque wall and that too direct the state government to do it? What kind of PIL is this," the bench asked and warned that similar PILs would invite imposition of cost on the petitioner.

The petitioner argued that if demolition of the boundary wall of the mosque was illegal for which the IAS officer was put under suspension, then the state government must regularize the land and construct the boundary wall.

On August 16, the bench headed by Justice Dattu had dismissed another PIL filed by an advocate seeking quashing of the order suspending Nagpal. The bench had said that if she was aggrieved by the suspension order, the IAS officer was capable of challenging it herself in court.