India court clears mosque survey as Hindu groups push temple claim

Sambhal mosque becomes the latest target as Hindu nationalist groups use courts to get control of Islamic sites under Modi government

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — The Allahabad High Court has upheld a lower court’s decision to survey the 16th-century Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh. 

The mosque’s managing committee had challenged the inspection, but Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal dismissed their plea, allowing a court-appointed advocate commissioner to proceed with a detailed survey.

The case, initiated by Hindu petitioners including lawyer Hari Shankar Jain, alleges the mosque was constructed in 1526 by Mughal emperor Babur after demolishing a Hindu temple, Harihar Mandir. 

The suit, filed in November 2024, led to a preliminary survey on the same day and a follow-up inspection five days later. The commissioner was instructed to submit findings by the month’s end.

Muslim groups have condemned the decision, accusing India’s judiciary of enabling Hindu nationalist groups to erode Muslim religious rights. 

The case echoes the 2019 Supreme Court ruling that handed over Babri Masjid’s land to Hindu claimants, despite acknowledging the mosque’s illegal demolition by mobs in 1992. 

Since then, petitions alleging mosques were built on Hindu temple sites have surged across India.

The Sambhal mosque committee criticized the trial court for acting with undue haste, alleging that the survey order was issued without proper deliberation. 

The High Court dismissed these claims, finding no procedural errors. 

However, broader civil court proceedings in similar cases remain paused pending the Supreme Court’s review of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. 

This law, designed to preserve the religious status quo as of 1947, prohibits changing the character of any place of worship. 

The top court has directed lower courts not to pass final orders until the constitutionality of the Act is decided.

Additionally, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) informed the court that the Shahi Jama Masjid is a Centrally Protected Monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. 

The ASI argued that the mosque lacks documentation confirming its status as a public worship site, asserting its authority to preserve such monuments overrides private ownership claims.

Legal experts and human rights advocates caution that this case reflects a broader pattern under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. 

They warn that judicial and institutional tools are increasingly being deployed to marginalize India’s Muslim minority, undermining the country’s secular principles.