Petitioner fined Rs 50,000 for asking to remove verses from the Quran

New Delhi : The Supreme Court has issued a fine of Rs 50,000 to the petitioner for asking to remove a couple of verses from the Quran.

Petitioner Sayed Wasim Rizvi, a former Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board chairman, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court urging to remove 26 verses in Quran which he said were not the part of its original text.

"Are you seriously pressing the petition," a three judge-bench led by Rohington Nariman questioned, calling it "absolutely frivolous".

Sayed Wasim Rizvi's petition had called for the verses to be declared "unconstitutional, non-effective and non-functional", insisting that these promoted extremism and terrorism and posed a serious threat to the sovereignty, unity and integrity of the country.

According to the petitioner, Madrasas have been teaching the verses to the children, leading to cross border terrorism. 

His petition led to protest. "No verse of Quran provokes people to commit violence," said Maulana Mahmood Daryabadi, the General secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

The National Commission for Minorities had also issued notice to the petitioner accusing him of trying to disturb communal harmony and had asked him to apologise.