‘Ordering painting of Sambhal mosque is wrong’, High Court’s decision challenged in Supreme Court, CJI said- we are not…
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (April 1, 2025) refused to hear the petition filed regarding Sambhal Mosque, in which the decision of Allahabad High Court was challenged. Last month, the High Court had ordered the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to clean and paint the outer walls of the mosque.
According to the report of Live Law, after the order of the High Court, the work of painting the Sambhal Shahi Mosque of Uttar Pradesh was started from March 16. The decision of the High Court has been challenged in the Supreme Court saying that it is wrong to give this direction by the court. On Tuesday, the matter was placed before Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar.
Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna refused to interfere in the decision of the High Court and said, ‘We are not inclined to consider this petition, so the petition is dismissed.’ The High Court last month ordered the Archaeological Survey of India to paint the mosque as per the agreement between the mosque management committee and ASI in the year 1927.
On 25 February, the Muslim side filed a petition in the High Court demanding cleaning and painting of the mosque before Ramzan. The petition was heard on 27 February and a three-member committee was formed. The committee presented the report before the court and on 12 March the High Court ordered the ASI to paint the mosque. In the order, the court had ordered painting only those parts where it was needed. On 28 February, the High Court ordered the cleaning of the mosque, but did not allow whitewashing before Ramzan. On 12 March, while ordering whitewashing, the court gave 1 week’s time.
There is a dispute going on regarding the Sambhal mosque. Different people have filed petitions in the Sambhal trial court claiming that the Mughal ruler Babar had built the mosque by demolishing the Shri Harihar temple. On November 19, 2024, the trial court had ordered a survey of the mosque, but when the team reached there for the survey, violence broke out, in which four people lost their lives. After this, the matter reached the Supreme Court and the survey was stopped.
