Rajasthan Court Issues Notices On Suit Claiming A Shiva Temple Lies Beneath Ajmer Sharif Dargah

Civil Judge Manmohan Chandel issued notices and posted the matter for further hearing on December 20.

Gupta's suit filed through advocate Shashi Ranjan Kumar Singh seeks directions to the ASI to conduct a survey of the dargah, the mausoleum of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and to reconstruct Bhagwan Shri Sankatmochan Mahadev Temple at the site after the removal of the present structure.

In his suit, Gupta (in the capacity of Bhagwan Shri Sankatmochan Mahadev Virajman's next friend) claims that the Dargah appears to have been built on the sites of old Hindu temples, partly by converting and partly by adding to the structures already existing, as was usual in the times of the early Muslim ruler.

It has further been submitted that the plaintiff has a direct interest in protecting and preserving the religious character of Mahadev Temple at Ajmer at the site of Khwaja Dargah Sahib from illegal and unauthorized occupation by Defendant No. 1 (Dargah Committee).

“Historical accounts suggest there was a glorious and magnificent temple at the place of Khwaja Dargah Sahib from ancient times, which was damaged/destroyed by the different Muslim rulers. Thereafter, Muslims unauthorizedly encroached into the temple premises and put a super structure which they call the Khwaja Dargah Sahib despite the fact that the property was vesting in the deity and the same was not and could not be dargah property,” the suit submits.

The suit adds that a Shiva Linga lies beneath the underground passage to the cellar within the complex, and the right to worship the deity of Hindus under Article 25 of the Constitution of India is being continuously infringed by the defendants.