A plea has been filed in an Ajmer court seeking to temporarily stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi from offering a chadar at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, Live Law reported on Friday. The petitioner contended that the act would provide “political legitimacy” to what he claimed is a disputed structure.

“By providing any kind of political legitimacy to the disputed structure under consideration by the central government by sending a chadar, not only the judicial process would be obstructed but also the independence of the court would be vitiated, due to which the entire case would become baseless,” Bar and Bench quoted the petitioner as having argued.

The application was moved by Hindu Sena chief Vishnu Gupta as part of his ongoing lawsuit, which claims that the shrine of 13th century Sufi mystic Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was built over a Shiva temple.

The original suit filed by Gupta seeks directions that the Ajmer Sharif Dargah be declared as Bhagwan Shri Sankatmochan Mahadev Virajman temple. The plea seeks the removal of the dargah committee from the premises and asks for a survey of the site by the Archaeological Survey of India.

The petitioner has claimed that the roof design at the main entrance resembles a Hindu structure, suggesting that the site was originally a temple.

On Thursday, Modi presented a chadar to be offered at the shrine to Union Minister for Minority and Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju.

Since 2014, Modi has customarily sent a chadar to the shrine every year for the Urs, a ceremony at the dargah to mark the death anniversary of the Sufi mystic.

Rijiju arrived in Jaipur on Saturday with the chadar, saying that it was a “gesture of faith that unites millions and reflects the values of peace and brotherhood”.

In December, the Supreme Court barred trial courts from passing orders, including survey directions, in pending lawsuits concerning the religious character of places of worship.

It also said that no new suits can be registered in any court across the country until further orders while it hears a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the 1991 Places of Worship Special Provisions Act.

The Act does not allow any changes to the religious character of a place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.

There are presently at least 18 suits pending in courts across the country concerning 10 mosques and shrines, including the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, the Shahi Eidgah mosque in Mathura and the Atala Mosque in Jaunpur. Hindu litigants in these cases have claimed that these structures were built after demolishing ancient Hindu temples.