Saharanpur mosque demolished 3 days after appeal dismissed: What the court orders said

A mosque located on the Saharanpur Collectorate campus was demolished on Saturday, three days after a district court dismissed an appeal against an order that had directed its eviction. The September 2 order did not explicitly mention demolition; it merely upheld the July 16 magistrate order, which had directed the mosque's removal from the site.

The appeal was dismissed due to the plaintiffs' failure to provide reliable evidence supporting their claims of ownership and lawful possession of the disputed 315-square-meter land. The court found no legal or factual issues with the trial court's order. The government had asserted that the land was part of the Collectorate campus and recorded in revenue records as government property.

The plaintiffs argued that because the land was non-Z.A. (Zamindar), the Khasra entries did not establish ownership and that ownership should be determined from Khatauni and Khewat records. However, the court held that the land was government property based on Khasra No. 539's long-standing record as Collectorate/Kachahri land.

The city magistrate, Kuldeep Singh, clarified that the July order directed the "bedakhali" or removal of the premises, which had already been carried out. The plaintiffs contested this, stating that the mosque was over 150 years old and that the land was recorded in their names. They also claimed that the land had been withheld from the court.