ASI opposes move to restore deities inside Qutub Minar

NEW DELHI: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Wednesday opposed a plea before a Delhi court claiming ownership of Qutub Minar property, saying the intervention petition was ‘baseless and devoid of any logical or legal reasoning.’         

The court was hearing a plea claiming that the intervenor was a necessary party in an appeal seeking the restoration of deities inside the temple complex within Qutub Minar property. The petition claimed that Kunwar Mahender Dhwaj Pratap Singh was an heir of the United Province of Agra and the owner of lands in several cities in and around Delhi, including the property of Qutub Minar. The ASI said that the plea was insufficient to assert any right in the appeal and the intervenor’s claim of ownership of lands in and around Delhi was not raised before any court of law since 1947.

As the time to file a case for recovery or possession had expired by several decades, ‘the claim of ownership and the right to the prevention of interference in his property’ had lapsed by the principle of delay and laches, the ASI said. When Qutub Minar was declared a protected monument in 1913 as per law, no one raised objections and the period of limitation had ‘lapsed many times over,’ the ASI said.

It added that the intervenor did not challenge the ownership of land and claim possession. The objections could only be resolved by an independent suit along with the necessary parties as defendants for redressal of disputes, it said.