Aurangabad High Court on Tuesday stayed the ban on prayers at the Erandol Mosque issued by Maharashtra’s Jalgaon District Collector, the lawyer representing the mosque committee told Maktoob.
The order was passed by a single bench Justice RM Joshi.
Advocate SS Kazi, representing the 800-year-old mosque told Maktoob, “Restraining the collector’s order, the court has directed the collector to hand over the keys of the mosque to the Masjid trust and also asked to resume the prayers with an immediate effect.”
The order comes in response to the petition moved by the Mosque trust challenging the interim order of the Jalagaon’s collector banning the prayers on the mosque’s premises based on the complaint filed by an unregistered organization called “Pandavwada Sangharsh Samiti” on July 11.
The complainant Prasad Madhusudan Dandawate, a member of the right-wing organization made claims that the mosque trust ‘encroached on the land’ and built the mosque over a Hindu place of worship which is illegal and should be taken over by the state authorities.
Kazi informed Maktoob that as per the documents presented by the mosque’s trust the land belongs to the trust and the State and prayers are being offered in the mosque pre-independence.
He said, “The mosque’s trust committee, the Waqf Board, and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) too were issued notice by the collector, however, the ASI has supported the trust’s claims that it is an ancient structure and prayers are being offered ever since and the land belongs to Muslim Community.”
“Based on the documents presented before the court, the order came in our support”, said Kazi.
The lawyer also informed that the court also marked that since there was no breach of peace with respect to the Mosque regulations and prayers, the restraining order by the collector stand null and void.
