New Delhi, Aug 22 (HS):

The Supreme Court on Friday directed that status quo be maintained at the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, while issuing notice to the Hindu petitioners involved in the dispute. A bench headed by Justice P.S. Narasimha fixed the matter for further hearing on August 25.

The mosque committee had approached the apex court challenging the Allahabad High Court’s May 19 order, which had upheld a civil court direction for a survey of the disputed mosque premises. The High Court had also ruled that the case did not fall under the ambit of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991.

Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, representing the mosque committee, argued that the High Court erred in excluding the Sambhal mosque case from the scope of the Act, which mandates maintaining the religious character of places of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947. During the hearing, the Supreme Court asked Ahmadi whether the matter should be tagged with other pending cases relating to the Places of Worship Act.

On the other side, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, appearing for the Hindu petitioners, contended that the property in question came under the jurisdiction of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and therefore was not governed by the Places of Worship Act.

With the status quo order now in force, all eyes will be on the Supreme Court hearing scheduled for August 25, which could have wider implications for the interpretation of the 1991 Act in ongoing religious site disputes.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar