Contempt Plea Filed In Allahabad HC Alleging UP Govt Flouted Assurance Against Bahraich Mazar Demolition

A contempt petition has been moved before the Allahabad High Court alleging that the Uttar Pradesh Government has violated its assurance given before the HC not to take any coercive measures against the Dargah Hazrat Sayyed Mohammad Hashim Shah (popularly known as Lakkad Shah Mazar) situated in the Bahraich district. The plea claims that despite the State's categorical submission before the Court on June 10, 2025, that the demolition had been stopped and no coercive steps would be taken for the next four weeks, the structure was fully razed on June 13. Hearing the plea on Wednesday, a bench of Justice Brij Raj Singh directed the Standing Counsel to seek instructions in light of the allegations made in the contempt plea. The Court has directed that the matter be listed as fresh on July 3, 2025. “Learned counsel for the applicant will serve a copy of the contempt application to the learned Standing Counsel today, who is directed to seek instructions in the matter as there is allegation that there is violation of the undertaking given by the learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel in the order dated 10.06.2025 passed in Writ-C No.5870 of 2025,” the Court's order reads. Background For context, earlier, on June 10, the Uttar Pradesh Government had informed the High Court that it had stopped the demolition drive at Lakkad Shah and three other mazars situated in the Murtiha Range forest of Katarniaghat Wildlife Division in Bahraich. The State had also assured the Court that no further demolition or coercive action would be taken for a period of four weeks. This assurance was recorded by a bench of Justice Saurabh Lavania and Justice Syed Qamar Hasan Rizvi, which was hearing a writ petition filed by the managing committee of Waqf No. 108, which oversees the dargah where Urs has reportedly been celebrated since the 16th century. The committee had moved the HC after the Forest Department initiated the demolition of these mazars, citing encroachment on protected forest land under the Indian Forest Act, 1927. In the contempt plea, the waqf committee has alleged that on June 13, just 3 days after the State's assurance, the police personnel took the caretakers of the Mazar and other people into custody and dropped them nearly a kilometre away from the site. The plea further claims that demolition at the site resumed soon thereafter and that the entire structure was razed, and now only the graves are intact. The plea also accuses the authorities of wilful and deliberate breach of the undertaking and flouting the Court's direction of maintaining the status quo at the site. “Now the access and religious practices are being unlawfully obstructed and the further demolition disregard of the clear mandate of this Hon'ble Court, thereby causing grave prejudice to the religious sentiments of the community and violating the rule of law,” the plea states.Advocates Sayyed Farooq Ahmad, AkramAzad and Shujat Kidwai appeared for the petitioners.

Contempt Plea Filed In Allahabad HC Alleging UP Govt Flouted Assurance Against Bahraich Mazar Demolition

Sparsh Upadhyay

Tags