'Infructuous': Allahabad HC Dismisses PIL For Restraining PM Modi To Inaugurate Ram Mandir Till Conclusion Of 2024 Polls

The Allahabad High Court today dismissed as 'infructuous' a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea which sought to prohibit Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from conducting the Ram Mandir Pran Prathishtha ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Kshitij Shailendra noted that since the Pran Prathishtha ceremony has already concluded, the PIL plea has been rendered infructuous.

The PIL plea, filed by 79-year-old Bhola Das, prayed that the Prime Minister of India and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh be refrained from taking part in the Pran-Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya until the conclusion of the 2024 parliamentary elections and until they obtain consent from all Sanatan Dharm Guru Shankaracharya.

The PIL plea had contended that PM Modi and CM Yogi were indulging in 'dirty politics' and that the ruling political party Bhartiya Janta Party was "misusing" the power of government and "destroying the Sanatan culture" for the political interest of the party in the upcoming parliamentary election of 2024.

It added that the entry of politics into religious matters can not be permitted because it could "destroy the ethics of religious issues".

The PIL plea also contained objections raised by certain 'Shankaracharyas' against the consecration ceremony, asserting that the 'Pran Pratishtha' of the idol was not being done as per the principles of Sanatan Dharma due to the incomplete status of the Ram Temple. It also argued that the Pausa month of the Santana Hindu calendar is unfit and unlucky for religious functions.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 43