The Central Information Commission (CIC) on November 25 said that the 1993 Supreme Court order to pay remuneration to Imams in mosques from the public treasury was in violation of the Constitution and besides set a wrong precedent. The Supreme Court in 1993 had directed the State Waqf Boards to give remuneration to Imams in mosques managed by them.

“Further with regard to the judgment by the Supreme Court in the case between All India Imam Organisation And… vs Union Of India & Others on 13 May, 1993, that opened the doors to special financial benefits from the public treasury to only Imams and muezzins in the mosques, the Commission observes that the highest Court of the country in passing this order acted in violation of the provisions of the Constitution, particularly Article 27, which says that the tax payers money will not be used to favour any particular religion,” CIC Uday Mahurkar said in an order.

“The Commission notes that the said judgment set a wrong precedent in the country and has become a point of unnecessary political slugfest and also social disharmony in the society,” the order further said.

The CIC further observed that providing special religious benefits to the Muslim community before 1947 encouraged pan-Islamist and fissiparous tendencies played a key role in the nation’s partition and also amounts to betrayal of the Hindu community.

“Giving salaries to Imams and others only in mosques, amounts to betraying Hindu community and non-Muslim minorities and will also encourage pan-Islamist tendencies amongst a section of Indian Muslims which are already visible,” the CIC added.

“If a particular religious minority has a right to protection, the majority community too has a right to protection in a multi-religious country where it is incumbent that the rights of the members of all religions are protected equally in the interest of inter-faith harmony and unity of the nation,” the order reads.

The CIC has directed to forward the copy of the order to the Union Law Minister with the Commission’s recommendation for suitable action to ensure the enforcement of provisions of Articles 25 to 28 of the Constitution.

CIC Uday Mahurkar was hearing an RTI application filed by an RTI activist Subhash Agrawal seeking details of salaries being paid to Imams by the Delhi government and the Delhi Waqf Board. The activist had received no appropriate response to his application from the Delhi Waqf Board.

“The Delhi Waqf Board (DWB) gets an annual grant of around ₹62 crores from the Delhi government while its own monthly income from independent sources is just around ₹30 lakh. So the monthly honorarium of ₹18,000 and ₹16,000 being given to the Imams and Muezzins of DWB mosques in Delhi is being paid by the Delhi government virtually from the tax payers money which in turn is in sharp contrast with the example quoted by the appellant in which the priest of a Hindu temple is getting a paltry ₹2,000 per month from the trust controlling the said temple,” the CIC said in the order.