Lucknow:
The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court heard a petition seeking the opening of closed rooms in the Taj Mahal on Thursday. During the hearing of the petition, the counsel representing the petitioner argued that the citizens of the country have the right to know about the Taj Mahal.
However, the court dismissed the petition and asked the petitioner not to make fun of the PIL system.
“I have come to know about many rooms, which have been closed and the officials said that those rooms have been closed due to security reasons. If there are many hidden things under the Taj Mahal, those should be made public,” the petitioner said.
In response to the contention of the petitioner, he said that he has the right to know what is inside the 22 rooms of the Taj Mahal under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Will the Taj Mahal rooms be opened?
Due to the strike of the Avadh Bar Association, the hearing on the petition to open 22 rooms at the historic site was postponed. The petition has sought a direction to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to open rooms to examine the presence of Hindu idols at the site.
The petition, filed by Rajneesh Singh, BJP media in-charge in Ayodhya, has cited the claims of some historians that the structure is actually an old Shiva temple. The plea has urged the court to allow the ASI to form a special team and investigate the rooms which have been closed for centuries.
Singh had earlier said that the intention of the petition was not to describe the Taj Mahal as a Shiva temple, but to find out the truth behind closed doors for social harmony.
The land of Taj Mahal belonged to the Jaipur royals: BJP MP
Meanwhile, ahead of the hearing, BJP MP Diya Kumari on Wednesday claimed that the land on which the Taj Mahal stands belonged to Jaipur ruler Jai Singh.
Kumari, a member of the former Jaipur royal family, said, “Compensation was given in lieu of land, but how much was it, accepted or not, I cannot say, as I have not studied the records in our ‘Pothikhana’. But The land belonged to our family and Shah Jahan had acquired it.
He further said that people have a right to know why the rooms of the Taj Mahal are locked.
He said, “Taj Mahal, probably anything could have happened before the temple. People have a right to know what was originally before the ‘maqbara’.”
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