Delhi High Court declines urgent hearing to plea against stay on prayers at Mughal Mosque in Qutub Minar complex

New Delhi, June 6

The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to urgently take up a petition challenging a stay on prayers at the Mughal Mosque within the Qutub Minar Complex in Delhi.

The Mughal Mosque is located at the entrance of the Qutub complex in front of the Mughal Garden. Certain Hindu groups have been demanding right to pray at the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque on the ground that it has statues of Hindu deities and that it was built after destroying Hindu and Jain temples.

There was no urgency to hear the plea, a Vacation Bench led by Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri told advocate M Sufian Siddiqui after he submitted on behalf of the petitioner that the prayers were partially stopped by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on May 6 when only five people were allowed into the mosque. Later, the authorities stopped the prayers altogether on May 13, Siddiqui said.

“There is no order but people have been stopped from offering prayers on verbal instructions. This is in violation of fundamental rights. Rule of law has to be upheld and preserved,” he submitted.

Siddiqui had earlier mentioned the petition on Friday before a Bench led by Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi which asked him to mention it before the Vacation Bench.