Bhojshala dispute: Another plea in SC against MP HC order

A fresh plea has been filed before the Supreme Court challenging a Madhya Pradesh High Court order, which said that the disputed Bhojshala complex in Dhar district was a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati.

The high court had also said that the Centre and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) can decide on the Bhojshala complex’s administration and management.

The Hindu community considers Bhojshala a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, while the Muslim side calls the 11th-century monument the Kamal Maula Mosque. The disputed complex in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh is protected by the ASI. One Jebran Ansari has challenged the high court’s May 15 order. Earlier, the mosque’s caretaker, Qazi Moinuddin, challenged the order of the high court.

The Hindu side has already filed a caveat in the top court, saying no orders be passed without hearing it on any appeal against the high court order in the Bhojshala complex dispute case.

“Let no order be made in the above matter without notice to the undersigned,” said the caveat, filed by Jitendra Singh ‘Vishen’ through advocate Barun Kumar Sinha.

Vishen was the sixth petitioner in the matter in which a high court bench in Indore gave the decision.

The high court has also quashed an April 7, 2003, order of the ASI that allowed Muslims to offer namaz inside the Bhojshala complex every Friday. The high court also said that the Muslim community may approach the Madhya Pradesh Government for allotment of separate land in the district for the construction of a mosque.  In its much-awaited verdict, the high court observed that there were indications of a Sanskrit teaching centre and a temple of Goddess Saraswati existing in the Bhojshala complex.

The high court delivered the verdict on five petitions and one writ appeal related to the matter.

“The religious character of the disputed Bhojshala-Kamal Maula Mosque is established as a temple of Goddess Saraswati,” the high court had said.

The court, citing the ASI’s scientific survey report on the disputed monument and other documents on record, had said the structure was associated with King Bhoj of the Parmar dynasty, a Rajput kingdom that ruled the Malwa region of present-day central India between the 9th and 14th centuries.

The high court had said that if the Maulana Kamaluddin Welfare Society, a party to the case from the Muslim side, applies for land allotment for the construction of a mosque in Dhar district, the State Government can consider it in accordance with legal provisions.

After the controversy arose over the Bhojshala, the ASI issued an order on April 7, 2003, allowing Hindus to worship at the complex every Tuesday and permitting Muslims to offer namaz at the site every Friday.

The Hindu side challenged the order in court, seeking exclusive rights to worship at the complex.

A petitioner from the Jain community claimed that the complex was a medieval Jain temple and gurukul (traditional learning centre).

The ASI, after conducting a scientific survey of the monument in 2024 following a high court order, indicated in its over 2,000-page report that a massive structure dating back to the reign of the Parmar kings of Dhar predated the mosque, and that the current disputed structure was built using repurposed temple components.

The high court had ordered the ASI to conduct a scientific survey of the disputed complex on March 11, 2024.