Sanjauli mosque row: High Court asks Shimla municipal commissioner to decide case within 8 weeks

The direction came hours after the demolition of three unauthorised storeys of the disputed mosque began on Monday following an October 5 order of the Municipal Commissioner Court.

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Monday directed the Municipal Commissioner Court here to decide within eight weeks the 15-year-old case about the alleged illegal construction of Sanjauli mosque in Shimla.

The direction came hours after the demolition of three unauthorised storeys of the disputed mosque began on Monday following an October 5 order of the MC Court.

While the demolition got underway after permission was granted by the Waqf Board, the final verdict in the case is awaited.

Hearing a writ petition filed by the residents of Sanjauli, Justice Sandeep Sharma directed the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation "After a detailed argument, the High Court on Monday allowed the writ petition on behalf of the residents of Sanjauli and directed the Municipal Corporation to decide the main case in eight weeks. It also instructed to serve notices to all the stakeholders before hearing the case," said one of the petitioners and advocate Jagatpal Thakur.

Thakur said according to section 254 (6) of the MC Act, 1994, the proceedings of a case should be closed in six months but this particular case has been pending for the past 15 years.

"Therefore, we filed the writ petition seeking a time-bound decision in this case," he said.

The petitioners cited a report of a junior engineer of the municipal corporation to claim that the entire structure and not just a few floors of the mosque was illegal.

Earlier in the day, the Sanjauli mosque managing committee started the demolition of three unauthorised storeys of the mosque.

The demolition started with the removal of the roof amid tight police security, president of the mosque's managing committee Muhammad Latif told the PTI on Monday evening.

The case dates back to 2010 and in its 46th hearing on October 5, the MC Court directed the Waqf Board and the president of the Sanjauli Mosque Committee to demolish three storeys of the five-storey disputed structure in two months at their own cost.

The mosque committee submitted the representation, offering to demolish the unauthorised floors on September 12.

However, the All Himachal Muslims Organisation (AHMO) had announced to challenge the MC Court order in the court of appellate authority and take the matter to the Supreme Court.

AHMO state spokesperson Nazakat Ali Hashmi had in a statement said those who gave the representation had no authority to make any such submission and the orders passed by the MC Court were contrary to facts.