The Madras High Court had previously declared the construction of the mosque illegal and in violation of building regulations about a year ago. Recently, the Supreme Court upheld the demolition order issued by the Madras High Court concerning the mosque and madrassa built in Koyambedu, Chennai. The High Court had determined that the construction was entirely unlawful. An appeal against the Madras High Court’s decision, made on November 22, 2023, which declared the mosque’s construction illegal and lacking proper building sanction, was being heard by a bench of Justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan.
Justice J Nisha Banu of the Madras High Court expressed her dissatisfaction in her verdict regarding the lack of action by officials in addressing the matter. The High Court order emphasized that despite repeated instructions from the court, the officials failed to prevent unauthorized construction work.
As a result, the High Court ordered the demolition of the mosque and its relocation to another site, leading to an appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court noted that the property did not belong to the petitioner, the Hydha Muslim Welfare Trust, and highlighted several irregularities:
- The petitioner did not own the property in question.
- The property was under the jurisdiction of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA).
- The petitioner was occupying the property without authorization.
- No building plan sanction application was submitted by the petitioner.
- The construction was carried out without proper authorization.
- Despite notices issued by CMDA Authorities in December 2020, unauthorized construction continued.
Based on these grounds, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s decision to demolish the mosque. However, authorities were given permission to carry out the demolition until May 31st.
In the Supreme Court, the appellants were represented by Senior Advocate S Nagamuthu, along with Advocates MP Parthiban, Priyaranjani Nagamuthu, Shalini Mishra, R Sudhakaran, T Hari Hara Sudhan, Bilal Mansoor, Shreyas Kaushal, and PVK Deivendran.
