New Delhi: A vacation bench of the Delhi High Court on Monday refused an urgent listing of a petition challenging the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) order to stop the offering of ‘namaz‘ at a mosque near Qutub Minar.
A vacation bench of Justices Manoj Kumar Ohri and Poonam A Bamba said that there was no urgency in hearing the matter, denying the Delhi Waqf Board’s request.
Last week, a division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi also refused an urgent hearing in the matter.
On May 24, a lower court had reserved the appeal against the dismissal of a suit seeking restoration of the Hindu and Jain temples and the deities at the Qutub Minar complex.
The verdict in the matter will be delivered on June 9.
Additional District Judge Nikhil Chopra of Saket Court had earlier observed that the ‘deity at the Qutub Minar Complex has survived for 800 years without any worship’, and “let it survive in that way”.
He said this during the hearing of the appeal challenging the rejection of a suit alleging that the Quwwat-uL-Islam Masjid situated within the Qutub Minar complex in Mehrauli was built in place of a temple complex.
| Posted by Veena Nair | 
