Thirteen residents who used to offer namaz at the 200-year-old Takiya Masjid in Ujjain have filed an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s decision upholding its demolition, alleging that the state government razed the mosque to expand the parking area of the adjoining Mahakal Temple, the Bar & Bench reported.
The petitioners claim that the mosque, duly notified as waqf property in 1985, remained a functional place of worship until its “illegal and arbitrary demolition” in January.
According to the plea, the demolition violated multiple laws, including the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, the Waqf Act, 1995 (now the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995), and the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
The petition further alleges serious irregularities in the state’s land acquisition process, claiming that compensation was wrongly granted to unauthorised occupants and encroachers “to create a false case of acquisition.”
The petitioners had earlier moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking restoration of the mosque, but their plea was dismissed first by a single-judge bench and later by a division bench.
They have now approached the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the High Court’s decision.
As interim relief, the petitioners have urged the apex court to stay the operation of the High Court’s rulings, restrain the state from carrying out any construction or alteration at the site, and order an independent inquiry into the demolition.
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