Not time to settle present Govts' policies while PIL seeking to settle years' old kings' policies: HC

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court while rejecting a Public Interest Litigation seeking the removal of mentioning of Mughal emperors Aurangzeb and Shah Jahan who had approved grants to repair temples from an NCERT History textbook observed that it does not have time even to decide the correctness of the policies of today's governments.

Refusing to entertain the PIL, the High Court bench led by Chief Justice (CJ) DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said that the PIL is seeking to correct the policies of kings who lived more than 400 years ago while the court is struggling to settle the policies of present governments for the want of time, reported the law news portal Bar and Bench.

The CJ said that the petitioner seems to have a lot of free time that he files PILs on whatever issues comes to his mind. He suggested that the petitioner should file litigations on tax evasions instead of petty issues. The Court wondered why people are not acting on matters such as tax evasion.

The Bench further warned that it would impose costs on the petitioner, whom it described as "PIL Champion", for filing such senseless petitions. But the Court refrained from doing so after it got informed that the petitioners are school students.

The book 'Themes in Indian History – Part 2- says that all Mughal emperors gave grants to build and maintenance of places of worship. Emperors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb had issued grants to repair temples destroyed in the war, the book says. The PIL argued before the Court that the claim made by the textbook was not factual.

The petition was withdrawn later after the Court's strong disapproval.