The Delhi High Court on Wednesday declined to entertain a PIL seeking removal of a paragraph from a class 12 NCERT History textbook which referred to Mughal emperors Aurangzeb and Shah Jahan.
The division bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh termed the petition a waste of the court’s time and warned to dismiss it with cost. It was later withdrawn by the petitioner after the court expressed its strong disapproval against the PIL
“You are saying you have a problem that Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb had no such policy for giving the grants for temple repair, etc,” the bench observed. “We are unable to decide the present policies of the Centre and state governments and you are talking about some policies of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. You want us to decide about the policies of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb? The High Court will decide?”
The book — Themes in Indian History – Part II — says all Mughal emperors gave grants to support building and maintenance of places of worship. It refers to the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb and says that even when temples were destroyed during wars, grants were later issued for their repair. It was argued before the court that the claim made in the book was not factual.
