An RTI activist, Pandit Keshav Dev Gautam, has filed a petition in a Civil Court in Aligarh alleging that the Jama Masjid in the Upper Kot area, a densely populated and Muslim-majority locality in the old city, was built on land where Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples once stood. The petition claims that information obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) Act from various government departments, including the Aligarh Municipal Corporation, supports this assertion.

One of the RTI responses reportedly states that the mosque was "built on public land without government approval". Citing this information, Petitoner has approached the court, seeking to have the current Jama Masjid management committee declared "illegal.” He has also requested that the government take over the site of the mosque, removing it from the management committee’s control.

The petition, bearing the stamp of the oath commissioner, has been submitted to the Civil Court, and Civil Judge Gajendra Singh has ordered that the case be taken up for hearing on February 15, 2025.

Source: News.