LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court accepted a verbal plea of the lawyer of Hindu plaintiffs to refer to Sambhal Shahi Jama Masjid as a 'disputed structure'.
However, the written order passed by Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal called it a 'disputed mosque'.
The court, on Tuesday, was hearing a plea of mosque management committee seeking permission for whitewashing and cleaning of the masjid. The mosque committee had moved High Court on February 27.
The court fixed March 10, 2025 as the next date for hearing.
While the court was dictating the order, senior Supreme Court lawyer Hari Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side, requested the bench, comprising Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal, to refer to the mosque as a "disputed structure."
The court accepted his request and instructed his stenographer to use the term ‘structure of disputed Masjid’ in the order passed on Tuesday.
Jain argued that it was a legal process and when there was a case about a disputed structure, it cannot be called a mosque or anything else until the court gives a decision.
The advocate general Arun Kumar Misra submitted before the court that the law and order had been maintained in and around the structure of the disputed masjid by the state authorities.
During the last hearing, the court had asked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to hold a survey to ascertain the need of the whitewash of the mosque as requested by the mosque management committee through and application moved on February 27.
After the survey, the ASI had ruled out any requirement of whitewash but had suggested a cleaning to remove the dust and growth of vegetation. The ASI report had also claimed that the mosque management had undertaken several repair and renovation works in the mosque and it resulted in alteration of the original historic structure.
As the masjid management committee denied any such allegation, it was asked by the High Court to file its objections to ASI report which was filed by the committee on Tuesday in compliance of Court order. The counsel for masjid committee said that in pursuance of earlier order of the court, the cleaning work was going on under the supervision of the ASI.
On the next hearing on March 10, the ASI will respond to the objections raised by the masjid committee regarding its inspection report, which denied any necessity for the whitewashing of the mosque.
On February, 28, 2025 a report was submitted by Archaeological Survey of India to the effect that "the inspection was conducted in presence of Mutwallies of the Masjid and it was found that the interior of the mosque was painted with thick layers of enamel paint of sharp colours like golden, red, green and yellow concealing the original surface of the monument".
Senior advocate SFA Naqvi appearing for the committee, asked for time to file counters and had also submitted that they only wanted whitewashing and lighting.
On which, the court asked the ASI for cleaning the dust and overgrown grass in the premises.
The Sambhal mosque gained attention when unrest took place in the district on Nov 24, 2024, following a survey of the Mughal-era Jama Masjid by a team led by an advocate commissioner on the orders of a local court.
The violence, where protesters opposing the survey of the masjid clashed with security personnel, resulted in the deaths of four persons.
Later, the Uttar Pradesh govt constituted a three-member judicial commission comprising retired Allahabad HC judge Devendra Kumar Arora, retired IAS officer Amit Mohan Prasad, and retired IPS officer Arvind Kumar Jain to enquire into the incident.