Devotees entered the Bhojshala complex in Dhar district on Saturday to offer prayers after the Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court declared the disputed Bhojshala-Kamal Maula complex a temple and granted the Hindu side the right to worship at the site.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has declared the disputed Bhojshala complex in Dhar to be a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, suggesting the Muslim community seek land elsewhere for a mosque.
A Hindu party has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court regarding the Bhojshala complex dispute, seeking a hearing before any orders are passed on appeals against the Madhya Pradesh High Court's decision.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has informed the Madhya Pradesh High Court that a massive structure dating back to the Parmar kings existed at the Bhojshala temple-Kamal Maula mosque complex, and the current structure was built from the remains of temples.
Hindus will offer prayers from sunrise to sunset on Basant Panchami while Muslims to offer namaz from 1 pm to 3 pm on Friday.
Peace prevailed at the disputed 11th-century Bhojshala-Kamal Maula Mosque complex in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district on Friday as Hindus performed puja to mark Basant Panchami festival while Muslims offered namaaz within the same premises but at a different location.
Hindus offered prayers at the contentious Bhojshala/Kamal Maula Mosque complex in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district on Tuesday, with a team from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) continuing its court-mandated survey.
Aggrieved by the direction, Dhar city's head cleric Waqar Sadiq said they (Kamal Maula Mosque management committee) will challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Monday submitted its scientific survey report of the disputed Bhojshala-Kamal-Maula mosque complex to the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court.
The ASI team, comprising more than a dozen members, reached the complex in the morning.
Hindus consider Bhojshala, an Archaeological Survey of India-protected 11th century monument, to be a temple dedicated to Vagdevi (Goddess Saraswati), while the Muslim community call it Kamal Maula Mosque.
The security has been stepped up in view of the Friday prayers to be offered by the Muslim community members at the site, a police official said.
The Supreme Court's 2023 order refusing to stay a scientific survey at the Gyanvapi Mosque complex has sparked claims over several other disputed places of worship across India. This has led to several court cases, including one in Mathura where a survey of the Shahi Idgah Mosque complex was ordered, and another in Ajmer where a claim was made that a Shiva temple existed within the dargah of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti. The article also highlights a dispute over the Bhojshala in Madhya Pradesh, which Hindus consider a temple and Muslims consider a mosque. The Supreme Court's order has reignited debates about the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which prohibits the change of character of religious places as they existed on August 15, 1947.
The application filed by the Hindu Front of Justice, which is the original petitioner in the case before the Madhya Pradesh high court, and others said that after the April 1 order of the apex court, proceeding before the HC has also virtually stayed.
However, a division bench of Justices SA Dharmadhikari and Gajendra Singh made it clear the ASI won't be given any more time at the end of this 8-week period.
'Does a thousand-year-old sculpture worshipped in a thriving religion belong to a foreign museum or the temple from which it was extracted?' Congress MP Shashi Tharoor asked angrily. 'They legitimately belonged to India and people of past, present and future generations are interested in re-possessing them,' a central information commissioner declared last month.
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