Sambhal masjid dispute: The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a plea filed by the management committee of Sambhal's Shahi Jama Masjid, challenging the November 19 order of a district court that directed a survey of the Mughal-era mosque.

In this connection, Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel has constituted a three-member Judicial Inquiry Commission to be led by retired Justice Devendra Kumar Arora of Allahabad High Court to probe the incident of stone-pelting in Sambhal, which should ensure transparency and quality in inquiry. The two other members of the commission will be retired IAS Amit Mohan Prasad and Retired IPS Arvind Kumar Jain, it was ordered.

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Sambhal mosque survey plea in Supreme Court
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna would hear the plea filed by the committee as per the cause list of November 29 posted on the Supreme Court website.

The plea has sought ex-parte stay on operation of the November 19 order passed by the civil judge.

"The hot haste in which the survey was allowed and conducted all within a day and suddenly another survey was conducted with a notice of barely six hours has given rise to widespread communal tensions and threatens the secular and democratic fabric of the nation," it said.

Tension has been simmering in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal since November 19 when the court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid was conducted after claims that a Harihar temple once stood at the site.

Violence broke out on November 24 as protesters congregated near the mosque and clashed with security personnel, which led to stone pelting and arson. Four people died, and several others were injured in the violence.

The plea filed in the Supreme Court claimed the manner in which the survey was ordered in this case and in some other matters will have an immediate impact on the number of cases recently filed across the country concerning places of worship where such orders will have a "tendency to inflame communal passions, cause law and order problems and damage the secular fabric of the country".

It had asked for a direction that the report of the survey commissioner should be kept in a sealed cover and the status quo continued in the Sambhal mosque until the matter is decided.

It has also prayed before the apex court for an order in the effect of not passing any order of ordering and executing survey as a course of administration in disputes between parties concerning places of worship without hearing all the parties and enabling sufficient time to the person aggrieved persons to seek such judicial remedy against the impugned order of the survey.

It said the Shahi Jama Masjid at Chandausi in Sambhal has been standing since the 16th century and has been in continuous use by the Muslims as a place of worship.

The plea said that on November 19, the civil judge heard the suit ex-parte and allowed the application seeking the appointment of an advocate commissioner for a survey of the mosque within hours.

"The order dated November 19, 2024 also contained no reasons at all as to why such an application was being considered ex-parte and why was it being allowed the same day," the plea stated.

"Evidently, the above-said order directs a survey 'as per the application' and has given neither any reasons nor any terms of reference for the survey".

3-member judicial panel formed for Sambhal stone-pelting incident
"The Governor opines that in public interest it is essential to have an inquiry about the violent occurrence that occurred on November 24, during the survey of disputed Jama Masjid-Harihar Mandir Site in Town Sambhal, Police Station- Kotwali Sambhal, District-Sambhal during the compliance of the order passed by the Court in which many Police personnel were injured, four persons lost their lives, and various properties were damaged," the order said.