A court-ordered survey of a mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district sparked tensions on Tuesday with Muslim residents gathering in large numbers to protest the exercise, The Indian Express reported.

Officials surveyed the Shahi Jama Masjid in Chandausi town on Tuesday evening to investigate claims that a Hindu temple had existed at the site before the mosque was built in 1526.

A local court ordered Advocate Commissioner Ramesh Chand Raghav to conduct the survey hours earlier. A Hindu priest named Rishi Raj Giri had moved an application before the court earlier in the day alleging that Muslim rulers built the mosque in 1526 after demolishing a temple.

As officials arrived at the mosque to conduct the survey, hundreds of Muslims gathered to protest the action. A large number of police personnel were deployed in the area to maintain peace, Superintendent of Police Krishna Kumar told The Indian Express.

District Magistrate Rajendra Pensiya said the authorities were in contact with local Muslim leaders, who agreed that communal harmony would not be disturbed. “I have directed that those found spreading rumours through social media platforms or in any way will face legal action,” Pensiya said.

Zafar Ali, the lawyer for the mosque administration, said the survey was carried out in a hurried manner although the court had sought a report by November 29. He said that the mosque officials would challenge the court order if needed.

The Islamic group Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has offered legal help to the mosque management committee, The Hindu reported.

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind President Mahmood Madani said that the country “continues to suffer from the wounds” of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. The Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992 by Hindu extremists who believed that it stood on the spot where the Hindu deity Ram was born.

The Ram temple in Ayodhya is now being built at the site of the demolished mosque, in keeping with Supreme Court directions permitting its construction. The temple was inaugurated in a ceremony led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22.

Madani said that the Places of Worship Special Provisions Act was introduced in 1991 to prevent disputes such as the one involving the Babri Masjid from recurring.

“Even the Supreme Court, in its Ayodhya verdict, emphasised the significance of this law,” he said, according to The Hindu. “However, it is alarming to see this legislation being disregarded in recent judicial actions. Digging up the past has no end.”

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the Supreme Court’s judgement in the Babri Masjid case had emboldened Hindutva groups to target Muslim places of worship across India. He too questioned the speed with which the survey at Chandausi was conducted and remarked that such alacrity was not seen in ordinary cases.

“If courts continue to carry out such orders, the Places of Worship Act is just a dead letter,” he said. “The Act was meant to prevent such litigation from even reaching courts in the first place.”

The Places of Worship Act stipulates that the “religious character” of holy places would remain the same as it was on August 15, 1947, the day of Independence. The only exception to the law is the Babri Masjid.

Also read: How SC’s evasion on Places of Worship Act challenge is powering new Hindutva claims on mosques