Delhi High Court asks govt to produce documents on not declaring Jama Masjid 'protected'

Muslims attend prayers during Jumat-ul-Vida or the last Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at Jama Masjid in the old quarters of Delhi, India, July 1, 2016. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton - SR1EC710TCV1S

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to positively place before it in May, documents containing the decision of former prime minister Manmohan Singh that the historic Mughal-era Jama Masjid should not be declared a protected monument.

The court also asked the central government to file an affidavit disclosing the status of the file which the government has failed to produce despite several orders.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said the court had passed specific orders in April 2015, August 23, 2017 and November 16, 2017 directing the Ministry of Culture to produce the file wherein the decision was taken not to declare Jama Masjid a protected monument, but it has not been produced yet.

"The file shall be positively produced before the court on the next date, that is May 21," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said.

Central Government Standing Counsel Sanjeev Narula submitted that he was unable to produce the file and Jama Masjid was a live monument where people offered prayers and there are lot of restrictions.

The court, however, made it clear that the government shall produce the documents before it as it wanted to know the reason for such a decision.

The court was hearing several PILs seeking directions to the authorities to declare the mosque a protected monument and remove all encroachments in and around it.

Advocate D P Singh, appearing for petitioner Suhail Ahmed Khan, said the court orders were being flouted and not followed and asked why Jama Masjid was not under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

The court also sought the response of the Delhi Waqf Board and Jama Masjid's Imam Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari on a plea seeking to restrain the waqf board from using the title 'Shahi Imam'. The plea has also sought to stop the practice of referring to imams of other mosques here as 'shahi' (or royal).

The ASI had in August 2015 told the court that former prime minister Manmohan Singh had assured the Shahi Imam that Jama Masjid would not be declared a protected monument. The court was also informed that as the historic mosque was not a centrally protected monument, it does not fall within the purview of the ASI.

"In 2004, the issue of notifying the Jama Masjid as a centrally protected monument was raised. However, former prime minister Manmohan Singh assured the Shahi Imam, vide his October 20, 2004 letter, that the Jama Masjid would not be declared as centrally protected monument," the ASI had said in its affidavit in the court.

The PILs, filed by Suhail Ahmed Khan, Ajay Gautam and advocate V K Anand, have said that Jama Masjid was a property of Delhi Wakf Board and Syed Ahmed Bukhari, as its employee, cannot appoint his son as the Naib (deputy) Imam. They had also sought a CBI probe into the mosque's management.