ASI on Qutub Minar plea: existing structure can't be altered, not a place of worship

Responding to a plea to revive the temple at the Qutub Minar complex in Delhi, the Archaeological Survey of India has told a local court that the monument has been a protected monument since 1914 and its structure cannot be changed now.

The ASI in its report said the revival of worship cannot be allowed at a monument where such a practice was not prevalent at the time of it being granted the "protected" status.

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A controversy erupted after ASI’s ex-regional director Dharamveer Sharma claimed that the Qutb Minar was constructed by Raja Vikramaditya and not by Qutub al-Din Aibak, to study the direction of the sun.
The Ministry of Culture had also asked the ASI to submit its excavation report.

The ASI said the plea by the Hindu petitioners is legally not maintainable. It said the destruction of old temples to build the Qutub Minar complex is a matter of historical fact and the Qutub Minar complex is a living monument that has been protected since 1914. The ASI maintained that no one has the right to worship on the complex.

Activists from the Mahakal Manav Sewa and other right-wing outfits were seen staging a protest, holding placards and raising slogans, amid heavy police deployment at the Qutub Minar, which is recognised as a World Heritage Site by Unesco.