The Delhi High Court has directed the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to cordon off the site in the Walled City, where ruins of the Akbarabadi Masjid are believed to have been found recently during digging for a station by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, and hand it over to the Archaeological Survey of India(ASI) to ascertain the character of the ruins. A full bench of the court comprising Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Rajiv Shakdher issued the directions yesterday to the municipal body (MCD) to barricade the site.
The bench directed the Delhi Police to provide required security and police force to do the fencing on the site. The court took up the matter on mentioning of the matter by advocate Aman Lekhi that construction activity was going on near the site. However, no formal petition was filed today. The bench has directed the authorities to stay the ongoing construction on the site and directed that no further construction shall take place around the site. The municipal body had on Thursday taken over the area and refused to grant permission for any religious activity at the site as the local MLA had started construction of a mosque there. Led by local residents, Matia Mahal MLA Shoaib Iqbal had begun construction of a mosque over the ruins on the site which surfaced during digging by locals, claiming the presence of a mosque at the station site.
Mr Lekhi, appearing for a group of lawyers, sought the High Court’s intervention accusing Iqbal of illegally constructing a mosque on the government land and creating communal tension and said law enforcement authorities remained mute spectators when the legislator took the law into his own hands. The court has also directed Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to deal with the issue expeditiously and directed the Delhi government to hold a high-level meeting of senior officers from various departments, including ASI, NDMC and Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC).
The court also directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to file a status report about Jama Masjid redevelopment plan and posted the matter for July 25. UNI