SC upholds Gujarat HC order refusing to stop partial demolition of mosque for road-widening project

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld an order by the Gujarat High Court allowing the partial demolition of an Ahmedabad mosque said to be about 400 years old, The Hindu reported. A part of the structure is being set back to widen a road leading to the Sabarmati railway station.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi at the Supreme Court noted that only a portion of the vacant land and an adjoining platform were to be cleared for the road-widening project. It added that the main structure of the mosque, known as Mancha Masjid, would remain untouched.

The bench also said that a temple, a commercial unit and a residential property had similarly been earmarked for demolition as part of the same civic project, adding that it found no reason to interfere with the decision of the High Court.

The measure has been undertaken in public interest and did not infringe upon the right to religious freedom, the Supreme Court added.

On October 3, a division bench of the High Court declined to interfere with a September 23 order issued by a single-judge bench that refused to stop the partial demolition of the mosque in Saraspur.

The division bench agreed with the single-judge bench that the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had followed the required procedure before...

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