SC halts opening of well near Sambhal mosque
The Supreme Court halted the UP government from acting on a notice to open a well near the Shahi Jama Masjid, emphasizing communal harmony amid tensions.
The Supreme Court on Friday restrained the Uttar Pradesh government and Sambhal district administration from acting on a municipal notice to open for public use a well, half of which is located within the structure of the Shahi Jama Masjid and the other half outside it. The court emphasised the need to ensure communal harmony in the area, which has witnessed tensions over a claim that a Hindu temple once stood at the mosque’s site.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and justice PV Sanjay Kumar, ordered that the December 2024 notice issued by the Sambhal Nagar Palika Parishad, which mentioned cleaning the well, investigating the property and opening the portion outside the mosque, shall not be acted upon.
The bench observed that it is “keeping a close watch” to ensure there is no violence in the area and that peace and harmony are maintained. It set February 21 as the date for the next hearing and directed the district administration to file a status report within two weeks.
The top court’s ruling is in keeping with the December order of a bench headed by CJI Khanna that restrained all courts across India from entertaining fresh suits or passing orders to survey mosques to determine whether temple structures lie beneath them. This interim order was meant to act as a sweeping pause on the growing litigation initiated by Hindu groups seeking to reclaim places of worship, effectively stalled proceedings in trial and high courts, and marked a significant intervention by the judiciary in a matter fraught with religious sensitivities and legal complexities.
In the current instance, the court is seized of a plea by the mosque’s managing committee challenging a trial court order directing a survey of the mosque, raising questions over its legality and the manner in which it was ordered. The survey triggered widespread tensions in Sambhal, culminating in violent clashes on November 24, 2024, that left four people dead and several injured, including police personnel.
During the Friday hearing, senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, representing the mosque management committee, referred to the Sambhal civic body’s notice of December 14 regarding the well, urging the court to issue orders to the district administration not to take any steps with regard to the probe of the well, and open the well, constructed outside the structure without due permission from this court.
Additional solicitor general (ASG) KM Nataraj, representing the Uttar Pradesh government, opposed the plea, stating: “It’s a public well and property of the State. Everything is peaceful now. They want to create problems.”
The bench then told Ahmadi: “Let it be used by everyone. It’s water, after all. You are yourselves saying only half of it is inside the mosque and the other half is outside. There is no harm if someone uses the water from the other side which is open. Let everyone use water.”
Ahmadi, however, countered: “It’s all covered and was never used. The water is used by the mosque through a pump...The municipality’s notice calls it Hari Mandir and says they will use the water for pooja and bathing of worshippers.”
To this, the bench rebuked the state’s plan. It told ASG Nataraj: “What’s this? Don’t start all this. This isn’t fair...don’t do all that.”
While the law officer answered in affirmative, the bench called for a status report and ordered that the civic body’s notice regarding the well will not be given effect to.
At this point, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu plaintiff before the Sambhal civil court, reminded the bench that the mosque committee was asked in a previous order to move the Allahabad high court since it had come directly to the Supreme Court.
Responding, the bench said: “Yes, we are aware. We remember we had asked them to go to the high court, but we wanted to keep a close watch to ensure violence doesn’t take place and peace and harmony are maintained.”
The dispute gained momentum after violence erupted during the court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid on November 24, 2024. Four people lost their lives in clashes that broke out over claims that the mosque was built on the site of a Hindu temple, referred to as “Harihar Temple” by the plaintiffs.
On November 29, the Supreme Court restrained the trial court from proceeding with the suit and advised the mosque committee to approach the Allahabad high court. It directed the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure peace and consider resolving the dispute through community mediation under Section 43 of the Mediation Act. The November 29 order also put the survey report under wraps, instructing authorities not to act upon or publicise it until the high court hears the case.
The Shahi Jama Masjid, located in Sambhal, has been at the center of communal tensions since a suit filed on November 19, 2024, alleged that it was built over a Hindu temple site. The plaintiffs sought access to the site for worship, prompting the local trial court to order a survey, which was carried out with photography and videography.
The mosque management committee claimed that the survey was conducted ex parte, without prior notice, and alleged undue haste in the proceedings. The Uttar Pradesh government later constituted a three-member committee, led by former Allahabad high court judge Devendra Kumar Arora, to investigate the violence.
The dispute over the Shahi Jama Masjid is part of a growing list of similar litigations across India, where claims over religious sites have been made by Hindu plaintiffs. On December 12, In December 2024, the top court issued a directive restraining courts across India from entertaining fresh suits or ordering surveys of mosques to determine whether temple structures lie beneath them. These issues are being examined in the context of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which freezes the religious character of places of worship as it stood on August 15, 1947, barring the Ayodhya-Babri dispute which was ongoing at the time.
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