NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday told the Delhi High Court that Mughal Mosque in South Delhi’s Mehrauli area is a ‘protected monument’ and sought time to state its stand on a plea against the stopping of offering namaz by devotees there.
The Centre asked Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri to grant more time to seek instructions on the petition which pertains to the mosque which is situated within the ‘Qutub Complex’ but outside the ‘Qutub Enclosure’, Advocate Kirtiman Singh, appearing for the Centre, said that a case concerning the mosque was also going on before a lower court in Saket.
The lawyer for Delhi Waqf Board, Wajeeh Shafiq, however, said that the proceedings before the Saket court concern a different mosque. Advocate M Sufian Siddiqui, appearing for the Managing Committee of Delhi Waqf Board, urged the court to hear the case as early as possible, saying that the mosque has remained shut for prayers since May.
On July 14, the court had given time to the Centre and Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to state their stand on the petition. The petitioner had then told the court that the mosque in question is a duly gazette notified waqf property that has a duly appointed Imam and Moazin, and not the contentious ‘Quwattul Islam Mosque.’
A plea, pending before a Saket court, has prayed for the restoration of Hindu and Jain deities inside the Qutub Minar complex on the ground that 27 temples were partly demolished by Qutubdin Aibak, a general in the army of Mohamad Gauri.