On October 7, 1995, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) served a notice on the trust managing the mosque, saying the structure was a major bottleneck in the road widening process and should be removed. Hardliners on both sides of the fence had been on the offensive ever since, bringing the city to the brink of communal clashes twice in the past three years. While the elected wing of the SMC, dominated by the BJPwanted to acquire the entire religious structure located on the busy Bhagal crossing, the minority community was unwilling to budge, citing a resolution adopted by the SMC in 1951 which excluded all religious structures in the city from the alignment line.

The resolution was religiously honoured for the last four decades. It was only in 1995 that the elected wing of SMC maintained that the 1951resolution protecting religious structures was temporary and hence no longer valid, says former mayor Kadir Pirzada.

As a solution, trustees and religious leaders of the community suggested that they would shift the minaret, the rear portion of the mosque, provided the prayer hall was protected. The then municipal commissioner S R Rao had agreed but the elected wing turned down the proposal insisting the entire structure be removed. Hardliners within the minority community brought pressure on the trustees not to respond the notice served on them by the civic body. Some of the trustees, apparently instigated by fanatic elements, even issued statements saying ``thousands of youths'' were ready for ``sacrifice'' if the mosque was pulled down.

Since the trust ignored the notice, the then mayor Fakirbhai Chauhan announced that legal proceedings had been completed to demolish the 118-year-old mosque a historical structure according to the SMC's own records. Chauhan's statement prompted the trustees to move theHigh Court, which, in its ruling on April 20, 1998 protected the prayer hall (jamatkhana). and set aside the SMC's notice. The court however advised the trustees ``to remove the minaret portion and the structure supporting it as it would not affect the offering of prayers within the mosque while leaving a road line of a width of about 56 feet as against sanctioned road line of 60 feet.

Unaware of the court verdict, Chauhan, now leader of the House in the SMC, challenged the commissioner to pull down the minaret even as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad hailed the court verdict.

Meanwhile, municipal commissioner S Jagadeesan held several meetings with trustees, religious and political leaders of the minority community. The only solution, Jagadeesan told the trustees, was self demolition for which not everybody was ready. But after constant attempts at persuasion, with the involvement of religious leaders and other influential people in the community, it was agreed to demolish the minaret on Sunday even as thecommissioner permitted the trustees to construct the minaret inside the prayer hall.