SC refuses to entertain plea against Allahabad HC order on Sambhal mosque whitewashing
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea challenging an Allahabad High Court order that asked the Archaeological Survey of India to whitewash the Mughal-era Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district.
The high court had on March 12 asked the ASI to undertake and complete the whitewashing of the mosque within a week.
"We are not inclined to entertain the present petition. Dismissed," ordered a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar.
Appearing for appellant Satish Kumar Aggarwal, Lawyer Barun Sinha assailed the high court's order, saying the ASI was wrongly asked to whitewash the wall of the mosque.
In his order, HC judge Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal had said, "The ASI shall undertake the whitewashing work and complete the same within a period of one week from today. Further, no extra lighting shall be put on the walls, as it may cause damage to the monuments, but exterior lights in the shape of focus lights/LED lights may be used by the ASI for lighting of the outer area of the alleged Masjid.
"The expenditure incurred in the whitewashing shall be borne by the Masjid Committee, and the same shall be reimbursed within one week after the completion of whitewashing work," he had said.
The high court had earlier directed the counsel appearing for the ASI to come up with specific averments as to what prejudice would whitewashing of the outer walls of the mosque cause.
Prior to this, a court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era mosque was undertaken and it led to the violence at Sambhal last year.
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Maharashtra: All files to be vetted by Shinde before being sent to CM Fadnavis
Mumbai (PTI): The Maharashtra government has ordered that all files will now go through Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde before being presented to CM Devendra Fadnavis for approval.
The moves seeks to revive an arrangement which existed in 2023 of files being vetted by the then two deputy CMs --Ajit Pawar and Fadnavis -- before being forwarded to then CM Shinde.
State Chief Secretary Sujata Saunik issued an order to this effect on March 18. "Since July 26, 2023, files were moved from Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who holds the finance department, to (then) Deputy CM Fadnavis, who held the home, law and judiciary departments before being sent to (then) CM Shinde for approval," as per the order.
This arrangement was made after Pawar, who was then leader of opposition in the state assembly, joined the Shinde-led government along with a several NCP MLAs on July 2, 2023.
Now, with Fadnavis taking charge as chief minister, following the victory of the Mahayuti (comprising BJP, Shinde's Shiv Sena and Pawar-led NCP) in the state polls last year, the arrangement has been changed.
All files will be routed from Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who continues to hold the finance department, to Eknath Shinde, who is also the deputy CM and holds housing and urban development portfolios.
The files will be sent to Fadnavis after Shinde's approval, as per the latest order.
Since the Mahayuti 2.0 took over, there has been speculation of a "cold war" between Shinde and Fadnavis. Both the leaders have strongly denied the speculation.
There have been disagreements over the guardian minister posts of some districts. Fadnavis had to revoke his decision on the appointment of guardian ministers of Nashik and Raigad districts after objections from Shinde.
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