Shimla
The entire five-storey building of Sanjauli Mosque in Himachal Pradesh’s capital, Shimla has now been declared illegal. The Municipal Corporation Commissioner Court on Saturday, while giving its final verdict on the matter, also declared the lower two floors of the mosque illegal. Along with this, orders have also been issued to demolish them. In such a situation, now the entire Sanjauli Mosque will be demolished. Earlier, only the upper three floors of the mosque were declared illegal. Orders to demolish them were issued on October 5 last year. The work of demolishing them on the spot is almost complete. Now the lower two floors will also have to be demolished. On the other hand, the Waqf Board has decided to challenge this decision in the Commissioner Court.
The board says that when the copy of the decision arrives, it will be placed before the CEO of the Waqf Board, Zafar Iqbal. After this, this decision will be challenged in the competent court. The Waqf Board, which failed to present sufficient records to substantiate the claim of the mosque being legal, claimed that the lower two floors of the mosque are older than independence. The mosque has been built in their place. However, despite giving sufficient time, the Commissioner Court declared these also illegal when the approval for the construction of the lower floors of the mosque, the map, and the revenue record of the ownership of the land were not presented. However, the situation will be clear when the copy of the decision is received on how much time these floors are to be demolished.
Debate on this matter started in the Municipal Corporation Commissioner Court at around 12:00 noon on Saturday. The Municipal Corporation Commissioner asked the Waqf Board to present the revenue record of the lower two floors. Also asked to show its map and construction approval. The advocate of the board said that its revenue record is not available yet. This record has not been updated. Said that a mosque was built on the spot before 1947. The present mosque has been built in its place. The commissioner asked that when the old mosque was demolished in 2010, then from whom permission was taken to build a new mosque. The resident society also said that approval should have been taken from the Municipal Corporation for the new construction. But far from getting the map passed, the mosque committee did not even take NOC for tax and garbage from the Municipal Corporation. The debate continued till about 12:50. After the debate was over, the commissioner reserved the decision. When the hearing started again at 1:25 pm, the court announced its decision. The commissioner said that the Waqf Board or the mosque committee does not have any solid permission or documents for the construction of the lower two floors. In such a situation, it is illegal. This too will have to be demolished.
The Resident Society of Sanjauli, which raised the matter of demolition of this mosque from the Commissioner Court to the State High Court, called this decision historic. It said that demonstrations were held across the city to demolish this mosque built illegally on government land. Cases were filed against many people and some even got beaten by the police. But today they have gotten justice. Advocate Jagat Pal of the society said that we were saying from the first day that this mosque is illegal. It has been constructed on government land. Now the Commissioner Court has also declared it illegal. The lower two floors will also have to be demolished. He said that it has become clear from the decision of the Commissioner Court that the land on which this mosque is built belongs to the government. This entire construction was done illegally.
The Commissioner Court has heard only the case of the construction of the mosque. Everyone has different claims on which land the mosque is built on. The court also clarified that this case is only about illegal construction. This decision has not been taken by looking at the right to the land or any religion. The Waqf Board had claimed that this mosque is older than 1947. In the year 2010, a new building was constructed in place of its old building. The court said that the existence of the mosque is not in question. But in the year 2010, when the construction of the new mosque was started by demolishing the old one, permission was not taken from the Municipal Corporation. This year, the municipal corporation issued a notice to stop the work for not taking permission. After this, many more notices were also issued. But the work did not stop. According to the court, permission from the municipal corporation was necessary before starting any new construction. It is also mandatory to get the map passed. But the mosque committee did not do so and that is why it has been declared illegal. The state High Court also ordered the hearing of this case for six weeks, i.e., before 8 May, due to which the commissioner gave his final decision on this matter on Saturday.