Another mosque-temple wrangle in Uttar Pradesh (UP) came under the spotlight when Lucknow’s court of additional district judge on Wednesday upheld a plea seeking permission to offer prayers at Lord Shesh Nagesh Teeleshwar Mahadev Mandir said to be situated in the compound of the Teele Wali Masjid along river Gomti in the state capital. The additional district judge rejected a revision petition of the Muslim parties challenging a lower court order on the maintainability of a civil suit filed by Hindu parties.
Additional district judge Narendra Kumar (III) passed the order on a petition filed by advocate Nripendra Pandey and others. The court’s order came on the revision petition filed by Maulana Kari Sayyed Shah Fazlul Mannan, the Muslim party in the suit, challenging the order passed on September 6, 2023, by the Civil Judge (South) ordering that the suit of Hindu parties was maintainable.
Pandey filed the suit on February 15, 2023, seeking permission to offer prayers at the Lord Shesh Nagesh Teelshwar Mahadev Mandir. Besides, the Hindu litigants also claim that the Teele Wali Masjid was ‘Lakshman Teela’ constructed by Lakshman, the younger brother of Lord Ram. In addition, the Hindu litigants have urged the court to allow a survey of the mosque campus, especially the area that was annexed by the mosque committee in 2013 by erecting a boundary wall, said Advocate Abhay Srivastava who represented the Hindu parties while advocate Ritesh Rastogi represented the state government.
Another application seeking a survey of Teele Wali Masjid will come up for hearing on March 2 in the additional district judge’s court. Sources said a case was also filed by lawyer Hari Shankar Jain in the civil court in Lucknow in 2013, seeking a survey of the mosque. The matter, however, has been pending since then.
After Ayodhya, Kashi, and Mathura, this is the fourth major mosque-temple row in Uttar Pradesh that has come to the fore in recent times.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanahth three weeks ago highlighted the longstanding temple-mosque disputes in the state. while giving reference to the Hindu epic Mahabharata, while pointing to the contentious issues of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura, along with the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
“Injustice was done to Ayodhya. When I talk about injustice, we remember the incident that occurred 5,000 years ago when Pandavas had only sought five villages from Kauravas but they did not give them. In our country, the majority community wanted only three places (Ayodhya, Kashi, and Mathura). But for that too they were made to beg,” said Yogi Adityanath amid discussions during the motion of thanks on the governor’s speech in the UP assembly.
Comments
0 comment