Rani Lakshmi Bai’s statue hasn’t endangered prayer rights at Shahi Idgah Park, HC told 

Civic agencies on Monday told the Delhi High Court that the installation of a statue of freedom fighter Rani Lakshmi Bai at Shahi Idgah Park in Sadar Bazar has not in any manner endangered the rights of people who offer prayers there.

After hearing the counsel for the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the court disposed of the plea filed by the Shahi Idgah Managing Committee challenging the installation of the statue, claiming that it was installed on Waqf Board property.

The court noted that the issue had been mutually resolved by the parties.

The urban body and the municipality had submitted that the statue was “installed at one corner of the park owned by the DDA, and that too after the construction of a boundary wall”.

The installation of the statue by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had snowballed into a major controversy with the Idgah committee claiming that it was installed on Waqf Board property, a contention that was rejected by a single-judge Bench of the High Court.

The High Court had earlier questioned the opposition to the installation of the statue observing that it did not want the issue to become a “flashpoint unnecessarily”.

The court, therefore, pulled up the Idgah committee for making “scandalous pleadings” in its plea.

It had also took exception to certain paragraphs against the single judge in the appeal, calling it “divisive”. The court had noted that Rani Lakshmi Bai was not a religious, but a national figure, so history should not be divided on communal politics.