The Delhi high court on Friday directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to file an action-taken-report over the removal of unauthorised construction by a MLA and his supporters near Jama Masjid here, where the remains of a Mughal-era mosque are alleged to have been excavated.
A special bench of the high court also directed the ASI to file a list of articles collected by the MCD from the site and handed over to it, as well as its plan to proceed further in the matter. It was alleged that the remains belonged to the seventeenth century Akbarabadi Mosque, built by one of Shah Jahan’s wives.
The bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri, Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice Rajiv Shakdher, had on July 30 directed the ASI to determine if a mosque had indeed existed at the site in antiquity and to demolish the illegal structure if the need be.
During the hearing on Friday of two separate pleas by the police and the MLA, the bench assured that “the rule of law will be enforced even if heavens fall”, after MLA Iqbal’s counsel said his client “has an apprehension that ASI would not investigate the issue in a transparent way.”
The bench said, “the ASI is already doing its task. How will a retired judge render assistance? Some useful purpose should be served. The ASI is an expert technical body, let it perform its statutory duty... You should have faith in the court. It would be very impartial investigation.”