NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Friday directed the Sambhal district administration to maintain peace and harmony in the communally charged area and ordered the trial court, which had ordered a survey of Shahi Jama Masjid on the Hindu side’s suit claiming it to be Harihar temple, not to proceed further till Allahabad high court heard the mosque management committee’s plea. Five people had died in violence in the wake of the survey on Nov 24.
Importantly, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar refused to accede to senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi’s plea on behalf of the mosque committee to halt the survey of the mosque being carried out by an advocate commissioner, who was entrusted with the task on the Nov 19. However, it asked the trial court to put the survey report in sealed cover. It also faulted the mosque committee for bypassing HC to move SC directly.
SC requested HC to give priority to the committee’s appeal against the trial court order and take it up for hearing within three days of its filing. It clarified that it has not expressed any opinion on the merits of the matter.
Won’t stop filing of Sambhal survey report: SC
After the bench said it would keep the mosque committee’s special leave petition challenging the Nov 19 order pending in Supreme Court while giving liberty to it to move high court for appropriate relief, Ahmadi said the advocate commissioner may file his survey report before the trial judge in the interregnum. “He should be directed not to file his survey report,” he pleaded.
The CJI Khanna-led bench said, “That is something different. We will not restrain him from filing the survey report. If the report is submitted by advocate commissioner, it will be kept in sealed cover and will not be opened by the trial court.”
Ahmadi said the order of trial court could cause “great mischief” across the country, which was witnessing a new trend.
“To my knowledge, there are at least 10 similar suits filed across India claiming rights over mosques. In many cases, the modus operandi is to appoint a surveyor on the first day of hearing. Thereafter a narrative is built,” he added.
“No further steps in the suit shall be taken by trial court without further orders from HC,” the bench ordered.
SC posted further hearing on Jan 6 after advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, appearing for one of the plaintiffs, said trial court had fixed the hearing on Jan 8.
Laying stress on maintenance of law and order as well as peace and harmony in the area, the bench sternly told additional solicitor general K M Natraj, who appeared for the Sambhal administration, “We do not want any untoward incident to happen in the meanwhile. The district administration must ensure peace and harmony. We do not want to say anything more at this stage.”
CJI Khanna told Natraj, “Under Section 43 of the new mediation law, the district administration must form peace committees comprising members of all communities. You have to be absolutely and totally neutral.” ASG said peace and harmony would be ensured and no one would be permitted to vitiate law and order.