Allahabad High Court directs ASI to whitewash Sambhal mosque within a week

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday directed the Archaeological Survey of India to finish whitewashing the Shahi Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal within a week, Live Law reported.

Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal ordered the mosque committee to reimburse the government agency for the costs incurred within a week of the work being completed.

Agarwal also directed the Archaeological Survey of India to install lights on the outer portion of the structure, PTI reported.

He noted that the action had to be taken in accordance with the original agreement entered in 1927 between the district administration and the mosque committee about the site’s handover to the Archaeological Survey of India.

The High Court was hearing a plea by the mosque committee, which said that it had sought permission for whitewashing and lighting the outer side of the structure. According to the committee, the Archeological Survey of India had not responded to the request.

The structure has been at the centre of a controversy since November 26, when violence broke out in Sambhal after Muslim groups objected to a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid.

A trial court had ordered the survey as part of a lawsuit claiming that the mosque had been built in 1526 by Mughal ruler Babur on the site of a “centuries-old Shri Hari Har...

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