Asad slams alacrity by courts to survey mosques over temple claims

cleared: jm
Hyderabad: AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday said that the Babri Masjid judgment has emboldened Hindutva groups to target more mosques across India.
In a post on X, he said: "Look at the case of Shahi Jama Masjid at Chandausi, Sambhal, UP. Within three hours of the application being submitted, the Civil Judge ordered an initial survey at the mosque site to find out if a temple was demolished to build the mosque. The application was made by a lawyer who is the UP govt's standing counsel in SC. The survey was carried out on the same day. This is how Babri's locks were also opened within an hour of the court order, without even hearing the other side (sic)."
Owaisi further stated: "This ‘speed' isn't shown in ordinary cases. If courts continue to carry out such orders, the Places of Worship Act is just a dead-letter. The Act was meant to prevent such litigation from even reaching courts in the first place. A masjid that has been used as such for hundreds of years is being made subject to motivated and communal litigation. Courts must nip this in the bud (sic)."
Owaisi was responding to a high alert sounded in UP Sambhal district after a court on Tuesday ordered a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid at Chandausi, acting on a petition filed by a mahant who claimed the mosque was built in 1526 after demolishing a temple.
Soon after an application was submitted around 1.30 pm, civil judge (senior division) Aditya Singh directed Ramesh Chand Raghav, whom the court appointed advocate commissioner, to carry out an initial survey at the mosque site to find out if a temple was demolished to build the mosque. The court also directed that a report of the survey be filed by Nov 29.