Allahabad High Court asks Centre, ASI to file counter-affidavit in Tejo Mahalaya dispute

The Allahabad High Court on Monday asked the Centre and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to file a counter-affidavit on a writ petition seeking a declaration that the Agreshwar Mahadev Nagnatheswar Virajman Tejo Mahalaya temple is present inside the Taj Mahal premises.

The petition was filed on July 3 by the Agreshwar Mahadev Nagnatheswar Virajman Tejo Mahalaya temple, Hari Shankar Jain and four others.

Hari Shanker Jain submitted before the court that his application for appointing an advocate commissioner as well as for photography of the premises in dispute was wrongly rejected by the trial court, and thereafter, the revision was dismissed as not maintainable.

Though the same is necessary for the adjudication of a dispute.

After hearing Jain, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal asked the Central Government as well as the ASI to file a counter-affidavit in the matter and also issued notice to Pankaj Kumar Verma, who is the respondent No 4 in the writ petition.

The petition was filed against the orders of the district court at Agra by which the Civil Judge (Senior Division), as well as the Additional District Judge, had declined to issue an order appointing an Advocate Commissioner to survey the disputed premises. A declaratory suit was filed in 2015 and is pending in the court of the Civil Judge (Senior Division) at Agra, seeking a declaration that the Agreshwar Mahadev Nagnatheswar Virajman Tejo Mahalaya temple is present in the Taj Mahal premises.

Pending suit, an application to appoint an advocate commissioner was moved, but both the district courts had declined to pass an order in the matter, which has been challenged in the present petition.

The Union of India, the Archaeological Survey of India and Pankaj Kumar Verma have been made parties-in-respondence.