The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday reserved its order in the Bhojshala case after hearing arguments over the religious character of the disputed site in Dhar.
A division bench of Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Alok Awasthi heard the matter for 36 days after daily proceedings began on April 6. The case centres on the Bhojshala Temple-Kamal Maula Mosque complex, a monument protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.
The state government told the court that the structure was never a mosque and that permission for namaz had been granted only to ease communal tensions before 1935. It added that the premises belong to the state and fall under ASI control.
The ASI maintained that the existing structure was built from parts of earlier temples dating to the Parmar era. Hindu petitioners sought exclusive worship rights and an end to namaz, while the Muslim side challenged the survey findings and argued that the site has long been recognised as a mosque.
