1: Sambhal mosque became the epicentre of communal violence last year after a court-ordered survey, based on a petition claiming that a Harihar temple stood in its stead.
2: The violence had claimed four lives, and injured many.
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered maintaining the status quo until August 25 in the Sambhal mosque dispute and issued notice to the Hindu petitioners.
A bench comprising Justices P. S. Narasimha and A. S. Chandurkar passed the direction while hearing an appeal filed by the mosque committee. The committee had challenged an Allahabad High Court ruling that upheld a Sambhal civil court’s order for a survey in the Shahi Jama Masjid–Harihar Temple dispute.
The Mughal-era mosque, which remains protected by ASI, has been mired in controversy since last November when communal violence broke out in Sambhal after a court-ordered survey. The survey was based on a petition claiming that a Harihar temple stood in the mosque’s stead.
The violence claimed four lives, injuring at least two dozen security personnel and administration officials, according to official reports.
Zafar Ali, president of the Shahi Jama Masjid, was arrested earlier this year in the case related to November violence. The bail hearing has since been deferred twice, once on March 27 and another on April 4, after Sambal police failed to produce critical evidence in court.
The mosque is the oldest surviving Mughal-era mosque. In an earlier legal altercation in 1878, a suit was filed by the Hindu side in a Moradabad court and an appeal in the Allahabad Court, but was dismissed by the then Chief Justice Sir Robert Stuart.
