SC Adjourns Hearing on Sambhal Jama Masjid Survey Pleas to August 18
The Supreme Court in New Delhi on Tuesday adjourned until August 18 the hearing on pleas filed by the management committee of Sambhal's Jama Masjid challenging an Allahabad High Court order regarding the survey ordered in the Shahi Jama Masjid-Harihar temple dispute.
A bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe deferred the matter after noting that a letter seeking an adjournment had been circulated. Two separate pleas filed by the mosque's committee of management challenging a May 19, 2025 order of the High Court came up for hearing before the top court on Tuesday.
The apex court was previously informed that the Allahabad High Court should not have proceeded in the matter concerning the survey ordered by a Sambhal civil court, in light of a December 12, 2024 Supreme Court direction. In that December ruling, the top court restrained courts across the country from entertaining fresh lawsuits or passing effective interim or final orders in pending cases seeking to reclaim religious places, specifically mosques and dargahs.
That 2024 direction was passed while hearing challenges to provisions of the Places of Worship Act, 1991. The 1991 law prohibits the conversion of any place of worship and mandates the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, excluding the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute at Ayodhya from its purview.
The Allahabad High Court had previously dismissed the mosque committee's plea against the survey, holding that the suit and the appointment of a court commissioner were maintainable. The committee had challenged a November 19, 2024 order of the civil judge directing a survey of the Mughal-era mosque, which was conducted the same day. A second survey was carried out on November 24, 2024, which the committee claimed was illegal because the civil court had never ordered it.
The suit filed in Sambhal alleged that Mughal emperor Babur built the mosque in 1526 after demolishing the Harihar temple. On November 29, 2024, the Supreme Court ordered the Sambhal court to halt proceedings over the mosque and its survey at Chandausi, directing the Uttar Pradesh government to maintain peace and harmony in the town.
