Allahabad HC seeks Yogi govt’s response over Saharanpur mosque demolition
Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court, while hearing a petition challenging the demolition of a mosque located at the Saharanpur Collectorate in Uttar Pradesh, has sought a response from the Yogi government and issued several directions.
The High Court has sought a reply from the Uttar Pradesh government in the form of an affidavit and granted it three weeks to submit its response. The court has also stayed the recovery of a fine of Rs 6.41 crore imposed by the Saharanpur City Magistrate. The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for October 12.
The petition was filed by Tanveer Ahmed, the mutawalli (caretaker) of the mosque committee, and was heard by a single-member bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal. The petition contends that the orders issued by the City Magistrate and the District Judge were beyond their respective jurisdictions.
In an order issued on July 16, the Saharanpur City Magistrate had directed that the mosque be vacated and imposed a fine of Rs 6.41 crore. An appeal against the City Magistrate’s order was filed before the District Judge, but it was dismissed on September 2.
Subsequently, on the morning of September 5, the authorities used bulldozers to demolish the more than century-old mosque, which stood on 315 square metres of land within the Collectorate premises. Following the demolition, the debris was dumped at different locations around 10 kilometres from the district headquarters.
When some Muslims reached the sites to inspect the debris, they found that some of the bricks bore the years “1911” and others “1909”. Videos showing the bricks were subsequently shared on social media, triggering a fresh controversy over the mosque’s history and the circumstances surrounding its demolition.
