New Delhi, Dec. 5: The Supreme Court today stayed the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board’s order which said the Taj Mahal was “waqf property”.

A bench of Justices Ruma Pal, S.B. Sinha and S.H. Kapadia issued notices to the board, the Uttar Pradesh government and others on petitions challenging the July 13 order of the waqf board, which said the Taj was waqf property “by use” and should be registered as such.

The court asked the contesting parties to reply to the notices and file counter-affidavits within four weeks.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Taj Conservation Committee, an NGO run by Supreme Court advocate Ajay Agarwal, had filed the petitions after the board claimed that any Muslim monument with a mosque and a mausoleum automatically becomes waqf property. At the Taj, there is a mosque where Friday prayers are held and there is the mausoleum of Mumtaz Mahal, in whose memory Shah Jahan had built the monument.

The bench also issued a notice to Mohammad Irfan Beddar, who has said the Taj should be bequeathed to him as he is a descendent of Shahjahan. The ASI had rejected his argument on the ground that the claim was “time-barred”.

The ASI petition contended that by declaring the monument waqf property, the board had ignored the fact that the Taj’s “title” was vested with the Centre. It said any attempt at the registration of the Taj as waqf property was “illegal” as the monument has been “under the actual and physical possession of the ASI”.

Pointing to counter-claims by the Shia waqf board and those calling themselves Shahjahan’s heirs, the petition said the waqf board’s decision would lead to “communal disharmony” and “law and order problem”.

The Taj Conservation Committee had said the waqf board order should be nullified as the apex court has been “seized of the matter for the last 21 years” and no court, board or commission has the jurisdiction to entertain cases related to the Taj.

Sunni waqf board chairman Hafiz Usman had stated in the order that all the mosques and tombs connected to the Taj, which were surrounded by a wall, were waqf property and should be registered as such in accordance with the Waqf Act, 1995.

He had directed the board’s chief executive officer to call a meeting of the ministries concerned ? both at the Centre and in states ? and officials of the Sunni Central Waqf Board to decide on the scheme of the Taj’s management.