New Delhi: The Allahabad high court on September 11 asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file a reply in three weeks on a writ petition challenging the demolition of a 115-year-old mosque in Saharanpur.PTI reports that the court stayed the recovery of the Rs 6.41 crore that was imposed as damages on the mosque management.Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal passed the order on a petition filed by advocate Mohammad Tanveer Ahmad which challenged the July 16 order of a city magistrate and the September 2 order of a district judge. Officials carried out the demolition on September 5.The Wire has reported how the hasty demolition of the mosque – claimed by its caretakers to be around 115 years old – using bulldozers, just three days after a district court ruling, while preventing opposition party elected representatives from going to the site, has triggered a political stir. Iqra Hasan, Samajwadi Party MP from Kairana, which includes parts of Saharanpur district, alleged that Uttar Pradesh Police put her under house arrest and did not let her visit Saharanpur while the demolition was going on.A Hindustan Times report highlighted how Senior Advocate Ashish Kumar Singh, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the eviction order was passed without properly determining the ownership of the land. He said revenue records showed the names of Wahid Khan and Yaqub Khan in connection with the property and that the mosque had also been entered in the waqf register.The Wire’s report notes that the mosque first came under the radar of the officials only after Bajrang Dal activist Vikas Tyagi filed a complaint against it in 2025, following which the revenue department carried out an inquiry and the state through the Saharanpur DM filed a suit.Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal, representing the state government, argued that official records showed the property as belonging to the Collectorate, The Hindu reported.The case will be heard again on October 12.In the meantime, Saharanpur police have arrested a former journalist and political activist, Huda Zariwala, for her comments about Chief Minister Adityanath over the demolition of this mosque.