Jaipur, November 29, 2024.
A court in Rajasthan’s Ajmer issued notices on Wednesday to the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on a lawsuit filed by a Hindu organisation laying claim to the site of the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, citing “historical evidence” of the existence of a Shiva temple there before the white marble shrine to the 13th-century Sufi saint was built over his tomb.
The Ajmer munsif criminal and civil (west) court will next hear Delhi-based Hindu Sena’s civil suit on Dec 20. The Dargah Khwaja Saheb committee, a statutory body constituted by the minority affairs ministry, is the third respondent in the case.
- Advocate Yogesh Suroliya, one of Hindu Sena’s three counsel, said the legal team submitted to the court a copy of former judicial officer and academician Har Bilas Sarda’s 1911 book Ajmer: Historical and Descriptive, which purportedly mentions that remnants from a “pre-existing” Shiva temple at the site were used in building the dargah.
- “We informed the court that there were continuous religious rituals at the temple till it was razed,” fellow advocate Ram Swaroop Bishnoi said.
- Vijay Sharma, the third counsel, sought a survey by ASI of the premises to verify the petitioner’s contention that the dome of the dargah contains “pieces of the temple” and that “there is evidence of the presence of a sanctum sanctorum in the basement”.
Parallels across other temple disputes
- The lawsuit is similar to the Gyanvapi case, involving multiple Hindu plaintiffs who contend that the mosque in UP’s Varanasi was built over the remains of a destroyed temple. ASI has already conducted a court-ordered survey there.
- The Krishna Janmabhoomi litigation in Mathura is another one, pertaining to a dispute over the ownership of the land where the Shahi Idgah now stands.
Recent developments
- In the Ajmer dargah case, Hindu Sena president Vishnu Gupta filed the petition in Sept but the initial hearing on the merit of the lawsuit was delayed because of a jurisdictional wrangle. The district and sessions judge then transferred the suit to the munsif court (west).
- The hearing was further delayed by the designated court asking for the petition in English to be translated into Hindi and submitted along with evidence and an affidavit.
- “The 38 pages of the lawsuit contain as many points of reference to show that a Shiva temple pre-existed where the dargah is located,” an advocate said. “As in the Gyanvapi case, the Places of Worship Act, 1991, cannot be invoked to negate this suit.”
What does the Muslim side say?
- Syed Sarwar Chishty, secretary of the Anjuman Moinia Fakhria, a body representing the dargah’s hereditary caretakers, dismissed the Hindu side’s arguments about the existence of a Shiva temple at the site of the Sufi shrine as baseless.
- “These frivolous assertions are aimed at harming the country’s communal harmony. The dargah is one of the most revered places for Muslims after Mecca and Medina. Such actions deeply hurt the sentiments of devotees worldwide,” he said in a video-recorded statement.
