New Delhi: The Delhi high court has asked the Delhi Development Authority to maintain status quo on the land in Mehrauli where it demolished a 700-year-old mosque.
The DDA demolished the Masjid Akhonji (also alternatively spelled ‘Akhondji’), which has been variously described as 600-700 years old, on January 30. In September 2023, The Wire has reported, the DDA had assured the court that it would not demolish mosques and properties under the Waqf Board without demarcation.
On February 5, Justice Sachin Datta heard an urgent application filed by the Managing Committee of the Delhi Waqf Board, which has pleaded saying that the drive was undertaken in a manner which was brazen and irreverent.
LiveLaw has reported that the judge ordered that the status quo shall be maintained till February 12.
The mosque’s imam has been left without shelter as his house was also demolished. It is also the Board’s allegation that “copies of the Quran were torn, the children were not even allowed to take their belongings and none of the records were protected.”
“The court however clarified that the status quo order is passed only with respect to the khasra number where the mosque was situated and will not act as a bar on the DDA to carry out its action on adjoining areas,” the LiveLaw report says.