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Court has been told that the demolition was already carried out and completed on a weekend with large scale arrangements even before Collector's order legally came into effect
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed a top court bench today that there was serious suppression of facts by Auliye-e-Deen Committee which was before the court in a petition challenging the demolition of nine religious Muslim places of worship, graveyards, hutments, some of which were protected ancient monuments in Gir Somnath, Gujarat.
"It started 5 months back, in the same survey number we started removing encroachments...Nobody has told court that this is pending from 2020 and MANY TEMPLES HAVE ALSO BEEN DEMOLISHED..", SG Mehta went on to tell a bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Vishwanathan.
The said committee had approached Supreme Court of India challenging the illegal demolition of more than 9 Muslim places of worship and several graves/qabars and other structures existing since more than a century in lands in Prabhas Patan, District Gir Somnath, earlier State of Junagadh.
It has been submitted that representatives of the Petitioner Committee were detained at the office of the Collector on 27.09.2024, and on 28.09.2024, at 5 AM in the morning, and demolitions of all the nine religious places were carried out alongwith the other graves and hutments without letting the persons concerned remove their belongings including religious scriptures and holy books.
Top Court said today that till the next date the possession of said land would be with only the government as assured by SG Mehta.
However, the bench refused to order a status quo as prayed by Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the Committee, who submitted, "Overnight they have proceeded and demolished the structures..please let status quo be maintained..this is registered as a waqf, there are panchnama proceedings..".
Earlier this month too, Supreme Court had refused to stay demolition of structures near Gujarat's Somnath temple in a petition filed by Summast Patni Muslim Jamat.
Notably, on September 17, the Top court had by way of an interim order halted any demolition without its permission of properties of persons just because they are accused of being involved in a crime.
Later, the court had also extended its previous interim order halting any demolition while reserving its judgment in the pleas seeking appropriate directions against actions of bulldozing properties of any accused in any criminal proceedings.
Originally, a plea was filed by Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind after the Jahangirpuri demolitions, urging the top court to issue appropriate directions to the Center and States against actions of bulldozing properties of any accused in any criminal proceedings.
Jamait claims that such measures are against the constitution and violate the rights of a person. it was further claimed that “such measures by the government undermine the criminal justice system of our country, including the important role of the courts.
Case Title: AULIYA-E-DEEN COMMITTEE vs. THE STATE OF GUJARAT & ORS.
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