The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure peace and harmony in Sambhal as it restrained a local court from taking any further steps regarding the survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid until January 8.
It asked the mosque committee to approach the high court against the local court’s order of survey and said such petition would be listed within three days.
The top court said the advocate commissioner’s report based on the survey shall also be kept confidential. “We hope and trust the trial court would not take any further steps in the matter until the high court takes up the proceedings in relation to the matter and passes suitable orders.”
The top court heard the matter days after violence erupted during the survey on November 24 and left four people dead. The Uttar Pradesh government late on Thursday night named former Allahabad high court judge Devendra Kumar Arora as the head of a three-member committee to probe the violence.
Eight plaintiffs, including Supreme Court lawyer Hari Shankar Jain, filed a suit in Sambhal’s civil court on November 19 claiming the Shahi Jama Masjid was built on the site of a “Harihar Temple”. They sought access to the site, referring to it as a temple.
Jain and his son, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, have filed similar suits including on Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque adjoining the Kashi Vishwanath temple and Mathur’s Shree Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah.
The local court appointed the advocate commissioner on the day the suit was filed for the mosque’s photographic and videographic survey.
The order was passed ex parte. No notice was issued to the mosque management and within hours, the survey was conducted. Another survey was carried out five days later with barely six-hour notice to the mosque committee.