The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a writ petition filed by former chief of Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board Waseem Rizwi to scrap 26 verses from the Quran, saying they “promoted terror”.
A Bench led by Justice Rohinton Nariman declared the writ petition as “absolutely frivolous”. The court imposed ₹50,000 as costs on Mr. Rizwi. He has to pay the amount to the legal aid services authorities.
“Do you really want to argue the petition,” Justice Nariman asked the lawyer.
The latter sought “two minutes” to present his case. He went on to argue how these verses were used to instill the “sparks of Islamic terrorism” in children held in “captivity” in madrasas.
“We have heard the counsel and dismiss the petition as it is absolutely frivolous,” Justice Nariman concluded the hearing in short note.
In his petition, Mr. Rizwi said these verses were employed to justify acts of terror on “non-believers” and civilians.
“On account of the versus of Holy Quran, (more particularly described in the Writ Petition), the religion of Islam is drifting away from its basic tenets with a fast pace and nowadays is identified with violent behaviour, militancy, fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism,” the petition had said.
