Allahabad HC rejects petition against mosque removal

The Allahabad high court has dismissed a writ petition seeking the removal of the Shahi Masjid situated at GT Road in Saidabad, Prayagraj, for widening of a highway.

The court said that the issue could not be entertained within the scope of the petition.

The high court further clarified that as per government report, the mosque had been constructed by encroaching the government land.

Besides, the issue of title over the land can be decided by the civil court.

The Intezamia Committee of the Shahi Masjid had filed the petition on the basis of a revenue department report that the structure was in existence for a long time since pre-independence.

Dismissing the writ petition, a division bench comprising Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Om Prakash Shukla observed: "Looking into the stand taken by the authorities in the written instruction supplied today and the enclosure appended therein and in view of the categorical stand of the respondents that the existing construction of Shahi Masjid situated on Prayagraj to Handia stretch of State Highway 106 is an encroachment on the government land namely 'gata No 402' as per the report of the sub-divisional officer, Handia, Prayagraj, we are not in a position to issue mandamus as claimed by the petitioner herein."

Declining to entertain the committee's arguments quoting the revenue department report, the court, in its decision, further said: "A perusal of the said report indicates that it is based on the statement made by the people of the locality and there is no data or material which was looked into by the reporting officer before making the above statement with regard to the existence of Shahi Masjid."