On Monday, the Allahabad High Court allowed the survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid located in Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh. The court rejected a petition filed by the Mosque Committee, which had challenged the trial court’s earlier order passed in November 2024. That order allowed a survey based on a claim that a temple was broken down to build the 500-year-old mosque.

The case has now been sent back to the Sambhal district court for further proceedings. The order was passed by Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal.

Violence had broken out in Sambhal on November 24, 2024, when a group of people tried to stop the Advocate Commission team that had come to survey the mosque. The crowd clashed with the police during the incident.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had put a stay on the local court’s survey order. It had said that no further action should be taken until the High Court heard the mosque committee’s petition. Now that the High Court has dismissed the plea, the case will continue in the district court.

The Mosque Committee argued that the survey order was given too quickly and without proper notice. They said the mosque had already been surveyed two times — once on the same day the order was passed and again on November 24, the day of the violence.

The Hindu petitioners in the case — advocate Hari Shankar Jain and seven others — claimed that the mosque was originally a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Hari Har. They said the temple was partly broken and turned into a mosque in 1526, on the orders of Mughal emperor Babur.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), in its reply to the court, said that the mosque is a centrally protected monument. ASI also said it cannot be called a place of public worship, as there are no official records proving that.

A sealed report of the survey, prepared by Advocate Commissioner Ramesh Raghav, has already been submitted to the trial court.

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