Clarion India
NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Uttar Pradesh government’s order to demolish the Dargah Mubarak Khan Shaheed in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur till the pending proceedings under the Uttar Pradesh Public Premises Act, 1972, have been disposed of.
“In the meantime, further demolition is restrained till disposal of the proceedings pending under the Uttar Pradesh Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1972,” the top court’s order read.
According to LiveLaw, the stay on the demolition comes after the court was orally informed by the petitioner—Dargah Mubarak Khan Shaheed—that it had received a letter dated March 8 from the secretary of the Gorakhpur Development Authority (GDA) requesting the city’s superintendent of police to deploy a force and begin the demolition work from Tuesday.
The division bench, comprising Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Krishna Murari, have also issued notice to the state in the issue. The special leave petition on the behalf of Dargah Mubarak Khan Shaheed has been filed against Allahabad High Court judgement of February 10, which dismissed the petitioner’s request of declaring the demolition as void and prohibited authorities for further demolition.
The petitioner in the plea has said that the idgah has a tomb of Saint Mubarak Khan Shaheed and a mosque on the southern side of the tomb, which has been there for a long time and was used for prayers and festivities.
According to the petitioner, the use of the properties was in 1959 disturbed by the principal of Government Normal School after which egress and ingress were stopped, leading to the filing of a suit before munsif’s court. One of the relief sought that time against the defendants, including the Uttar Pradesh state and Gorakhpur collector, was to open the eastern gate of the Brijman compound for the egress and ingress. The suit went in the plaintiff’s favour, LiveLaw cited the petitioner as saying.