The municipal company court docket in Shimla on Saturday declared the complete mosque in Sanjauli space unauthorised and ordered the demolition of the complete five-floor construction.
The municipal company court docket in Shimla on Saturday declared the complete mosque in Sanjauli space unauthorised and ordered the demolition of the complete five-floor construction. (HT file photograph)
MC commissioner Bhupender Kumar Attri dominated that the mosque had been constructed with out essential permissions, together with a constructing allow, a no-objection certificates and a sanctioned map, in violation of guidelines. He ordered the demolition of the decrease two flooring as nicely along with the three flooring that have been ordered to be demolished in October final 12 months.
This places to relaxation the case that had been heard greater than 50 occasions within the MC commissioner’s court docket over the previous 15 years.
The detailed copy of the order was awaited.
The order comes after the Waqf Board was not in a position to current the papers of possession of the mosque land. The mosque committee was not in a position to present the map of the construction or the no-objection certificates (NOC), although the Waqf Board stored claiming possession of the land for over a decade.
“The MC commissioner has ordered the demolition of the mosque as the mosque committee or the Waqf Board failed to provide records pertaining to the ownership of the land on which the mosque has been built,” mentioned advocate Jagat Pal, representing native residents of Sanjauli.
Now the complete mosque, constructed within the residential space in Sanjauli, should be demolished. The demolition must be carried out by the Waqf Board and Sanjauli Mosque Committee themselves.
Battle expedited case
On October 5, 2024, the MC commissioner had ordered the demolition of three unlawful flooring of the mosque following a protest in Shimla on September 11. The mosque committee had given an endeavor to the MC commissioner, providing to demolish the unauthorised portion.
On September 11, at the very least 10 folks, together with six police personnel and 4 protesters, have been injured when police needed to resort to lathicharge and use water cannons to stop agitators from breaking barricades and reaching the neighborhood of the mosque. This protest was the fallout of a communal conflict at Mehli in Shimla on August 31 after which members of a neighborhood hid within the Sanjauli mosque. From September 1, residents held protests towards unauthorised mosques in Shimla and different districts of Himachal Pradesh.
On October 21, the Himachal Pradesh excessive court docket directed the Shimla MC to determine inside eight weeks on the case regarding the alleged unlawful building of Sanjauli mosque. The court docket directed the MC to behave upon the appliance that was first filed in 2010.