PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has dismissed a writ petition moved against the proposed removal of the Shahi Masjid situated at GT Road in Saidabad, Prayagraj, for widening of highway, saying that the issue couldn’t be entertained within the scope of the petition.
The high court further clarified that as per government report, the masjid had been constructed by encroaching the government land. Besides, the issue of title over the land can be decided by the civil court. The Intezamia Committee of the Shahi Masjid, Saidabad, had filed this petition on the basis of a revenue department report that the structure was in existence for a long time, i.e., since pre-independence time.
Dismissing the writ petition filed by the Intezamia Committee, a division bench comprising Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Om Prakash Shukla observed: “Looking into the stand taken by the authorities in the written instruction supplied today and the enclosure appended therein and in view of the categorical stand of the respondents that the existing construction of Shahi Masjid situated on Prayagraj to Handia stretch of State Highway 106 is an encroachment on the government land namely ‘gata No 402’ as per the report of the sub-divisional officer, Handia, Prayagraj, we are not in a position to issue mandamus as claimed by the petitioner herein.”
Declining to entertain the masjid committee’s arguments quoting the revenue department report, the court in its decision dated August 16 further said, “a perusal of the said report indicates that it is based on the statement made by the people of the locality and there is no data or material which was looked into by the reporting officer before making the above statement with regard to the existence of Shahi Masjid.”
“Be that as it may, from the averments made in the writ petition and that of the written instruction supplied today, it seems that the dispute is about the title to the property over which the construction exists. For any claim of the petitioner with regard to the land over which Shahi Masjid exists, it is open for it to approach the civil court by filing a civil suit seeking declaration or necessary relief in the same. In any case, in view of the categorical stand of the respondent state authorities, the issue raised herein cannot be entertained within the scope of the writ petition,” added the court while dismissing the writ petition.
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