The Shimla Municipal Corporation Commissioner has ordered the disputed Sanjauli Masjid to be completely demolished in Himachal Pradesh. On Saturday, Corporation Commissioner Bhupendra Atri has asked to remove the mosque as illegal and also to remove the lower 2 floors.
This decision has come when the Waqf Board could not present the ownership paper on the mosque land in the corporation’s court. Not only this, the map of the mosque and any kind of NOC is also not with the Mosque Committee. Whereas, the Waqf Board continued to claim ownership over the ground for a long time.
Now the Muslim side says in this case that further strategy will be made only after reading and understanding the order completely. Masjid Committee President Mohammad Latif says that a copy of the order has not reached him yet.
Orders have already been done to break up the upper 3 floors
The Corporation Commissioner has given orders to break the 3 floors above the mosque on 5 October last year. Since then, the work of breaking the mosque was going on. After the latest order, now the mosque in the residential area in Sanjauli will have to be completely removed.
The corporation considered both the lower floors illegal: Advocate Jagatpal of the local resident about the order said- 3 May 2025 is a historic day for all. The court of Shimla Corporation Commissioner has issued an order to demolish the entire Sanjauli Mosque today. The 2 floors left, are also considered illegal and asked to completely clean it.
6 weeks time from the High Court: He said- As I told you earlier that the order to demolish the upper 3 floors of the mosque was already ordered in the order of 5 October 2024. After this, the High Court had ordered that the entire case be settled in 6 weeks. After this, the commissioner has asked to remove the entire mosque. The 6 -week time of the High Court was to be completed on May 8, but the last working Saturday was today, so the commissioner secured the verdict at 1 pm. After this, the verdict was pronounced at around 1.30 pm.
Waqf Board does not have land ownership: The lawyer said that in today’s order, it has been cleared that for 15 years, the Waqf Board of Himachal Pradesh has been asserting the land, but could not prove the ownership in the court. He did not make any complaint even while dropping the old mosque, so at present, no mosque existed at that place. After demolishing the old mosque, the land automatically went to the Himachal government.
