The Supreme Court will hear on Friday the petition challenging the survey order of the Shahi Jama Masjid of Sambhal.

New Delhi, November 28: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Friday a plea challenging a November 19 order of a district court, which had directed that a survey of a Mughal-era mosque in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal be conducted.

According to the cause list dated November 29 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna is scheduled to hear the petition filed by the Management Committee, Shahi Jama Masjid, Sambhal. The petition has sought a unilateral stay on the implementation of the November 19 order passed by the civil judge.

It said, “The haste in which the survey was granted and completed within a day and suddenly another survey was conducted with six hours' notice led to massive communal tension and the country's secular And the democratic fabric was threatened.

Tension has been rife in Sambhal since November 19, when the royal Jama Masjid was surveyed on court orders following claims that a Harihar temple earlier stood at the site.

Violence erupted on 24 November when protesters gathered near the mosque and clashed with security personnel, leading to stone pelting and arson. Four people died and several others were injured in the violence.

The petition filed in the top court claimed that the manner in which the survey was ordered in this case and some other cases will have an immediate impact on the cases recently filed in connection with places of worship across the country, Where such orders “tend to incite communal sentiments, create law and order problems and harm the secular fabric of the country”.

In this, a direction has been sought that the report of the Survey Commissioner should be kept in a sealed envelope and the status quo should be maintained in the mosque of Sambhal till the matter is decided.

The petition also sought a direction from the top court to the effect that surveys should not be ordered in cases involving disputes over places of worship without hearing all the parties and that the aggrieved persons should be given adequate time to seek judicial remedies. Needed Order of survey.

It said the Shahi Jama Masjid at Chandausi in Sambhal has been standing since the 16th century and has been continuously used as a place of worship by Muslims.

“Although no dispute has arisen so far in relation to the aforesaid Jama Masjid, a suit was filed by eight plaintiff parties on November 19, 2024, alleging that Jama Masjid was 'Shri Hari Har Mandir' and inter alia -It was also sought to direct that the plaintiff has a right to access the Jama Masjid and sought an injunction against the defendants from creating any obstruction in the access to the mosque, which the plaintiff calls a temple.''

The petition said that on November 19, the civil judge heard the case ex-parte and within a few hours accepted the application seeking appointment of an advocate commissioner to survey the mosque.

“There was no reason in the order dated November 19, 2024 as to why such an application was being treated ex-parte and why it was being allowed on the same day,” the petition said.

“Apparently, the above order directs a survey 'as per the application' and neither any reason nor any terms of reference for the survey is given.”

The petition claimed that within two hours of the order, the advocate along with the commissioner, police force and others reached the mosque to conduct the survey. It said the survey started at 6 pm and continued till 8.30 pm.

“While the petitioners were preparing their legal remedies against the ex parte order and survey on November 19, just before midnight of November 23/24, 2024, the circle officer came to inform the petitioner committee chairman that suddenly another survey would be held next Will be held in the morning i.e. November 24, 2024,” the petition claimed.

It said that before the petitioner had a chance to fully understand and avail any remedy against the second survey, by 6.15 am on November 24, the Survey Commissioner arrived with heavy police presence and the plaintiff's advocates and conducted the survey. began.

“The haste with which the matter escalated and the sudden survey that followed created apprehensions in the minds of residents of the area, causing them to come out of their homes. According to reports, the police opened fire on the protesting citizens And the firing resulted in the loss of six innocent lives and several injuries,” it claimed.

Citing “extraordinary circumstances”, the petitioner has urged the apex court to intervene and stay the proceedings of the civil suit pending before the civil judge.

The petition claimed that ordering large-scale surveys, where claims are made late on mosques, is emerging as a pattern.

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