The Supreme Court on
Friday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to maintain "peace and
harmony" in Sambhal as it halted any action by a court in that town
regarding the survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid until January 8.
It instructed the mosque
committee to challenge the local court’s survey order in the Allahabad High
Court, where the case is expected to be listed within three days.
Sambhal case:
Court’s directions on survey report
The top court emphasised
that the advocate commissioner’s survey report must remain confidential. “We
hope and trust the trial court would not take any further steps in the matter
until the high court takes up the proceedings in relation to the matter and passes
suitable orders,” it said.
This decision came after violence
erupted during the survey of the mosque on November 24, resulting in four
deaths. In response, the Uttar Pradesh government appointed a former Allahabad
High Court judge, Devendra Kumar Arora, to lead a three-member committee tasked
with investigating the violence.
Sambhal row: Legal
challenge over mosque survey
The controversy began on
November 19, when eight plaintiffs, including Supreme Court lawyer Hari Shankar
Jain, filed a suit in Sambhal’s civil court. They claimed that the Shahi Jama
Masjid was built on the site of the “Harihar Temple” and sought access to the
site, referring to it as a temple. Jain, along with his son Vishnu Shankar
Jain, has previously been involved in similar suits, such as those related to
the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and the Shree Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah
in Mathura.
Court's order sparks
immediate survey
On the same day the suit was
filed, the local court appointed an advocate commissioner to conduct a
photographic and a video graphic survey of the mosque. The order was passed
without notice to the mosque management, and the survey was conducted within
hours. Another survey was carried out five days later, with less than six
hours' notice to the mosque committee.
Mosque committee
seeks SC's intervention
In response, the mosque’s managing committee approached the Supreme
Court, seeking an immediate stay on the survey. The petition argued that such
surveys, particularly of historic religious sites, could lead to communal
tensions and undermine India’s secular fabric. The mosque committee also
questioned the legality of the survey, citing the "haste in its
implementation" and the lack of an opportunity to contest the court order.