Teele Wali Masjid Dispute| Maintainability Of Lord Sheshnag's Suit In Lucknow Court Seeking Possession Of Premises Challenged In Allahabad HC

A plea has been moved before the Allahabad High Court challenging the maintainability of a suit pending before the Lucknow Court seeking possession of the City's Teele Wali Masjid Premises. Hearing the matter on Monday, the HC sought replies from the opposite parties by April 28.

Essentially, the Suit pending before the Lucknow Civil Court was filed in 2013 by Lord Sheshnagesht Teeleshwar Mahadev Virajman through friend Dr VK Srivastava contending that during Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's rein, a Hindu religious structure was demolished to make way for the Teele Wala mosque and therefore, the said premises be now handed over to the deity (Lord Sheshnagesht Teeleshwar Mahadev Virajman).

It is also the case of the plaintiff-Deity that the Teele Wali Masjid is actually Laxaman Tila and the same was converted into a mosque during Mughal Rule. The suit also claims that the Tileshwar temple exists inside the mosque and that the entire complex is the place of Sheshnag Dudheshwar Mahadev. The suit also prays for worshipping rights inside the complex. 

In the year 2017, the Civil Judge (Senior Division) Lucknow had held the suit to be maintainable turning down an Order 7 Rule 11 CPC plea of the Masjid parties. Thereafter, the revision plea filed against the order was also dismissed by the ADJ's Court. Challenging both these orders, the Masjid Side (Represented by Maulana Syed Shah Fazlul Mannan) has moved the High Court.

It is the primary plea of the petitioner that the Suit before the Lucknow Court is non-maintainable due to the operation of the Places of Worship Act. Hearing the case on Monday, a bench of Justice Manish Mathur granted 10 days' time to the opposite parties to file their replies.

It may be noted that the Hindu worshippers claim that Lord Rama had instructed his younger brother Laxman to form Laxman Puri in Sanatan Kaal. Following the instructions, Laxman built Laxmanpuri on the banks of Gomti and established a Shiva ling on a mound, which was named Sheshnag Tileshwar Mahadev (present-day Teele Wali Masjid).

Appearances

Counsels for Petitioner: Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran, Harsh Vardhan Kediya and Sheeran Mohiuddin Alavi.

Counsels for Respondent: Hari Shankar Jain, A.S.G.I., C.S.C., Farhan Habib, Ranjana Agnihotri, Syed Aftab Ahmad, Agendra Sinha, Apurva Saxena, Sanandan Kumar Misra,  Sandhya Dubey, Sudha Sharma, Sandeep Tewari, and Harshita Awasthi

Case title - Maulana Syed Shah Fazlul Mannan vs. Lord Sheshnagesht Teeleshwar Mahadev Virajman,Lko. Thru. Friend Dr. V.K. Srivastava And 8 Others [MATTERS UNDER ARTICLE 227 No. - 1768 of 2023]