High Court Rules Bhojshala-Kamal Maula Complex Temple, Supreme Court Challenge Follows

A court ruling has fundamentally altered the religious status of a long-disputed monument in central India, leading to a significant shift in worship practices and a new legal challenge before the nation's highest court. The Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has declared the Bhojshala-Kamal Maula complex in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, also known as Vagdevi.

The court's May 15 judgment quashed a 2003 arrangement by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) that had permitted Hindu worship on Tuesdays and Muslim Friday prayers at the site. The court ruled that the religious character of the monument is that of Bhojshala, a temple associated with the 11th-century ruler Raja Bhoj. It directed the Union Government and the ASI to oversee the site's administration under the ASI Act of 1958.

Following the verdict, the ASI issued fresh directives allowing unrestricted Hindu worship. On the first Friday after the ruling, hundreds of Hindu devotees gathered at the complex for a large-scale religious ceremony, including a maha aarti, which organizers described as the first of its kind there in over two decades. The event proceeded under tight...