PRAYAGRAJ, May 20 -- The Allahabad high court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by the Sambhal mosque committee challenging a trial court's order passed on November 19 last year directing an advocate commissioner to survey the disputed site in connection with a suit which claimed that the mosque was built after destroying a temple. With this, the high court has upheld the trial court's survey order. Dismissing the civil revision petition filed by the committee of management, Jami Masjid, Sambhal, Ahmed Marg Kot Sambha, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal vacated the interim stay order on the suit pending before the court below. The high court directed the district court to proceed in the matter. In a 45-page judgment, the high court rejected the claim of the mosque committee's counsel that the present suit of the plaintiff is prima facie barred by the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which prohibits conversion of any place of worship and provides for maintenance of religious character of any place of worship as existed on August 15, 1947. "This is not a case where any conversion of place of worship is taking place or any religious character of place of worship is being changed. Plaintiffs have only sought right to access to a protected monument declared in the year 1920 under Section 18 of the Ancient Monument and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958," the high court said. The Samabhal trial court's order dated November 19, 2024 was passed on a suit filed by plaintiffs, who had claimed that the Sambhal mosque was built in 1526 after demolishing a Hindu temple that stood at the site. The mosque committee had contended before the Allahabad high court that the civil judge (junior division) had passed the survey order hastily, without issuing notice to them. The survey of the mosque was undertaken the same day (November 19), and again on November 24, 2024. In their suit, the Hindu plaintiffs had claimed that the mosque in question was originally the site of an ancient temple (Hari Har Temple) dedicated to Kalki, the last avatar of Lord Vishnu. In 1526, on the orders of Mughal ruler Babur, the temple was partly demolished and converted into a mosque, the suit had claimed. The trial court proceedings were effectively stayed by the Supreme Court in November last year. The apex court had directed that the trial court shall not proceed further with the matter until the mosque committee's petition against the survey order is listed before the high court. The Archaelogical Survey of India had argued that there is no historical, archaeological or revenue evidence supporting the term 'Shahi Masjid. During the hearing in the high court, the ASI stated that the said "mosque" has been notified as a Centrally Protected Monument. After independence, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act( AMASR Act) came into effect, and its provisions are now applicable to such monuments and nowhere is the mosque described as a religious place in official records....