The Delhi High Court has refused to give urgent listing to the matter pertaining to the petition that seeks permission to offer prayer at the Mughal Mosque inside the Qutub Minar Complex in Delhi.
A vacation bench comprising of Justices Manoj Kumar Ohri and Poonam A Bamba said that the matter is not of utmost urgency and can be taken later. The bench ” no urgency to hear the plea”.
The petitioner side Advocate M Sufian Siddiqui told the court that, prayers were partially stopped by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on May 6 , however by 13th May, the prayers were stopped all together.
“There is no order but people have been stopped from offering prayers on verbal instructions. This is in violation of fundamental rights. Rule of law has to be upheld and preserved,” Siddiqui said.
The same petition was earlier posted before the It the bench of Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Vipin Sanghi on Friday, where Justice Sanghi has asked this to be posted before the vacation bench.
The question posed by the petitioner side is that The Mughal Mosque which is located at the entrance of the Qutub complex is separate from the disputed Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque located in the Qutub Minar Enclosure, thus it makes no sense of closing that for the prayers.
It is equally inportant to note that there are several Hindu groups which have been demanding rights to prayers at the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque stating it to be build on debris of sculptures belonging to several temples of Hindu deities and Jain deities.