New Delhi: The Allahabad High Court on Monday upheld the order for a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, dismissing the Mosque Committee’s plea challenging the trial court’s November 2024 order concerning a petition alleging that a temple was dismantled to construct the Mughal-era mosque.
Proceedings at the trial court level were stayed by the Supreme Court in November 2024, with a directive that no further action be taken until the High Court addressed the mosque committee’s petition against the survey order. With the order from the single bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal, the survey case is now expected to proceed in the Sambhal district court.
The mosque committee has filed a civil revision petition seeking a stay on the ongoing trial court proceedings in an original suit pending before the district court in Sambhal. Survey was passed hastily and without issuing them prior notice and also pointed out that the mosque was surveyed twice, once on the same day as the order and again on November 24, the day the violence erupted.
The Hindu plaintiffs — advocate Hari Shankar Jain and seven others — have claimed that the mosque in question was originally the site of an ancient Hari Har Temple, which, in 1526, was partly demolished and converted into a mosque on the orders of the Mughal ruler Babur.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), in its response to the court, said that the mosque has been designated as a centrally protected monument, which cannot be characterised as a place of public worship as there were no supporting records for such a claim.