BackAkhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha seeks action from BCI against Rajeev Dhavan for tearing map of Lord Ram’s birthplace
Dhavan says he had asked and sought the permission of the constitution bench whether those papers can be thrown and the reply from the CJI was ‘if it is irrelevant, you can tear it’ABHM writes letter to BCI stating that Dhavan committed a ‘highly unethical’ act by tearing a pictorial map purportedly showing Lord Ram’s birthplace
PremiumNEW DELHI : The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM), one of the Hindu party to the Ram Janambhoombhi- Babri Masjid land dispute, sought action from the Bar Council of India (BCI) against senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing Muslim party, for his act of tearing a pictorial map purportedly showing the birthplace of Lord Ram during the Supreme Court hearing on Wednesday.
The ABHM wrote a letter to the BCI stating that Dhavan committed a "highly unethical" act by tearing a copy of the map given to him by senior lawyer Vikas Singh, representing ABHM, in Supreme Court, before the five-judge constitution bench on the last day of the hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute case.
The letter states that the act of Dhavan brings disrepute to the Supreme Court Bar. It was also written in the letter that there is expectation of senior member of the Bar to maintain high standard and professional ethics.
"It is therefore, requested to take cognisance and take appropriate action against the senior advocate in accordance with law," Pramod Pandit Joshi, national spokesperson of ABHM said in the letter.
Dhavan, representing Sunni Wakf Board and other Muslim parties, had taken strong objection to Singh relying on the site map and books written by foreign and Indian authors to buttress claims that the central dome of the now demolished structure was the birthplace of deity ‘Ram Lalla’.
Dhavan had said such documents (maps) cannot be relied upon in the matter now as the issue of location of ‘janmsthan’ was discussed by the Allahabad High Court on other documents.
When he vigorously raised objections to the reliance on the pictorial map, which is also part of the book ‘Ayodhya Revisited’ by former Bihar cadre IPS officer Kishore Kunal, Singh had said he will not press the pictorial map to be taken on record.
Dhavan had then asked the constitution bench as to what he should do with the map. The bench had said that he can shred the document into pieces. Dhavan then tore the pictorial map, provided by the AIHM counsel.
The drama did not end there and during the hearing in the post lunch session, Dhavan again referred to the pre-lunch incident of his tearing off the papers and said that "outside the court, it has become viral".
"The news that has become viral is that I on my own tore the papers," he said.
Dhavan said he had asked and sought the permission of the bench whether those papers can be thrown and the reply from the CJI was "if it is irrelevant, you can tear it".
"The CJI said I could shred the papers and I just followed the order. I take advice of Mr (Arvind) Datar in such matters and he told me it was a mandamus (a kind of writ or direction)," Dhavan had said.
The CJI had shot back saying, "Dr Dhavan is right that the chief justice said, so he tore up. Let this clarification also be widely reported." The CJI was joined by another member of the bench, Justice SA Nazeer, who had said: "It is widely reported now".
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