A trial court’s order that triggered violence this week, leaving six Muslims dead, should be taken to the Uttar Pradesh state’s highest court, India’s Supreme Court said.
The Supreme Court also asked the trial court not to proceed with the order against Shahi Jama Masjid, a 16th-century mosque, until the Allahabad High Court acts on the lawsuit that the mosque will likely file shortly.
A trial court, acting on a petition by some Hindu groups, on November 19 ordered a survey team to inspect the mosque in Sambhal.
In the petition, the Hindu groups claimed that the mosque was built in 1526 at the site of a Hindu temple demolished by the Muslim Mughal emperor Babur.
Muslims have been using the Shahi Jama Masjid Mosque in Sambhal for almost 500 years.
In recent years, some right-wing Hindu groups began claiming that Babur, founder of the 16th-century Mughal Empire, destroyed the Harihar Temple and used the rubble to build the mosque. A survey by experts could lead to the discovery of the ruins of the ancient temple, the groups said.
After the Hindu groups filed the petition on November 19, the local court in Sambhal ordered a survey of the functioning mosque’s premises.
