The Allahabad high court has rejected the petition that sought opening of 22 locked rooms of the Taj Mahal.
“The issues lie outside court and should be done by various methodology and should be left with the historians,” the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court stated.
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The plea, seeking directions to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to open the 22 locked rooms of Taj Mahal, was filed by BJP leader Rajneesh Singh.
The BJP leader, in his petition said that the locked rooms of Taj Mahal should be opened to ascertain the presence of the idols of Hindu deities.
Reacting to the petition by the BJP leader, the Allahabad high court said that such debates are meant for drawing room and not the court of law.
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The Allahabad high court further reprimanded the petitioner asking him to conduct research on who built the monument, before filing a plea.
“Tomorrow you will ask us to go to the chambers of Hon’ble judges? Please, don’t make a mockery of the PIL system. I welcome you to debate the issue with us in the drawing-room and not in a court of law,” the Allahabad high court told BJP leader Rajneesh Singh.
Notably, the petition also cited claims by a section of historians and Hindu groups about the Mughal-era tomb originally being an old Shiva temple.
On the petitioner invoking Right To Information (RTI) while pleading to know what is in the closed rooms of the Taj Mahal, the court said: “Please enrol yourself in MA, then go for NET, JRF and do research (on history of Taj Mahal). If any institute disallows you to research on such a topic. Then come to us.”
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Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the city of Agra.
It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favourite wife – Mumtaz Mahal.
The Taj Mahal also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself.
Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643, but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years.
The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around Rs 32 million, which in 2020 would be approximately Rs 70 billion (about US $1 billion).
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Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being “one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”.
It is regarded by many as the best example of Mughal architecture and a symbol of India’s rich history.
The Taj Mahal attracts more than 6 million visitors a year and in 2007, it was declared a winner of the New 7 Wonders of the World (2000–2007) initiative.