NEW DELHI:A day after the Madhya Pradesh High Court order declared the disputed Bhojshala complex in Dhar district a temple, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board announced that the Kamal Maula Mosque Committee will challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court, and that the board will extend every possible support in this legal battle.The board in a statement said that it “strongly rejected the recent Madhya Pradesh High Court verdict in the Bhojshala–Kamal Maula Mosque dispute, in which the Bhojshala–Kamal Maula Mosque complex has been declared a Saraswati temple.”AIMPLB spokesperson, S Q R Ilyas, said, “the High Court judgment has been delivered in disregard of historical evidence, revenue records, colonial-era official documents, gazetteers, and centuries-old Muslim religious association with the site. The verdict is also in direct conflict with the spirit and constitutional mandate of the Places of Worship Act, 1991.”“The Court placed extraordinary reliance on traditions associated with Raja Bhoj, the historical legacy of Sanskrit learning, and ASI survey findings, while overlooking continuous religious usage, official records, and constitutional principles. Literary and traditional references do not always constitute conclusive historical evidence, and many religious sites in the subcontinent have undergone transformations across different historical periods,” Ilyas said.He further argued that the HC judgment gives primacy to a presumed ancient temple and a civilisational narrative, while ignoring the centuries-old status of the mosque, official documentation, ASI’s shared management arrangement, and the constitutional principle of preserving the religious character of places of worship after independence.
