The Delhi high court on Friday adjourned hearing on a petition challenging the Archaeological Survey of India order opening up of the disputed Bhojshala shrine in Madhya Pradesh for Hindus every Tuesday.
The court said the Madhya Pradesh high court should decide the matter.
Justice S K Mahajan, who had on September 1 refused to stay the April 7 order of the ASI, adjourned the hearing pending a final decision by the Madhya Pradesh high court.
The court did not fix any date for further hearing.
Earlier, Centre's counsel Nisha Kant Pandey requested the court to dismiss the petition, filed by five Muslims from Dhar in Madhya Pradesh, on the ground that a similar petition was pending in Madhya Pradesh high court at Jabalpur and entertaining this petition would lead to duplication.
Pandey produced a copy of the Centre's reply filed in Madhya Pradesh high court as directed by the court, which refused to issue notices to the Centre, ASI and the state government.
Petitioners -- Qazi Mounuddin, Altaf Mohammad, Kazi Zhirudddin, Rayaz Khan and Anaver -- had urged the court to quash the ASI order allowing Hindus to offer prayers at the shrine every Tuesday from sunrise to sunset.
Terming the ASI order as 'wholly arbitrary, illegal and void', the petitioners had also sought to restrain the Centre, the ASI and state government from implementing the same.
The petitioners submitted that allowing Hindus to offer prayers at the shrine 'is contrary to the established practice and has the effect of changing of the nature and character of the place' known as Bhojshala-Kamal Maula Mosque.
