Qutub Minar row: Can't revive temple at a protected monument site, ASI tells Delhi court

The Qutub Minar is a protected monument since 1914 and its structure cannot be changed now, the ASI stated.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Tuesday submitted its reply on the Qutab Minar case to a Delhi court where it opposed the petition to revive the temple at the location.

"The revival of worship cannot be allowed at a monument where such a practice was not prevalent at the time of it being granted the 'protected' status," the ASI told the court.

The Qutub Minar is a protected monument since 1914 and its structure cannot be changed now, the ASI stated.

According to a report in India Today, the ASI added, "The destruction of old temples to build the Qutub Minar complex is a matter of historical fact. The Qutub Minar complex is a living monument that has been protected since 1914. No one has the right to worship on the complex."

The petition was filed on behalf of Jain deity Tirthankar Rishabh Dev and Hindu god Vishnu by advocates Hari Shankar Jain and Ranjana Agnihotri.

It cites a short history purportedly displayed by the ASI which -- according to the petition -- states how 27 temples were demolished by Qutubdin Aibak, a general in Mohamad Ghori’s army, and the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque was raised by reusing the material.

Meanwhile, the Culture Ministry is considering conducting an iconography of the Hindu and Jain idols found in the Qutub Minar complex in Delhi, a senior official had said on Monday. He, however, added that there were no plans to excavate the site or stop any religious practice.

Senior officials said that religious practices are allowed on the premises of ASI-protected sites only if they were functioning places of worship at the time it took charge of them. No religious rituals can be conducted at non-living monuments where there has been no continuity of worship when it became an ASI-protected site, as is the case with the Qutub Minar, they said.

The comments came days after Chairperson of the National Monument Authority Tarun Vijay wrote to the ASI requesting that two Ganesha idols found in the adjoining Quwwat-ul--Islam mosque be moved out of the complex "owing to their disrespectful placement".

Earlier, a controversy had erupted around Qutub Minar after ASI’s ex-regional director Dharamveer Sharma claimed that the monument was constructed by Raja Vikramaditya and not by Qutb al-Din Aibak, to study the direction of the sun.