The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has ordered the Uttar Pradesh government and the petitioners to maintain status quo over a disputed parcel of land in Sitapur after a 150-year-old educational institution claimed an imminent threat of demolition.The matter was placed before the bench after the petitioners sought an urgent hearing, claiming an imminent threat of demolition of the educational institution. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)The division bench of Justice Alok Mathur and Justice Amitabh Kumar Rai passed the interim order on July 12 in a Sunday sitting while hearing an urgent petition filed by Methodist Mission Girls Junior High School, Civil Lines, Sitapur, and another. The petition also concerns a church situated on the premises.The matter was placed before the bench after the petitioners sought an urgent hearing, claiming an imminent threat of demolition of the educational institution.The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the disputed land measures 3.562 hectares and is situated in village Chavani Kadim, pargana Khairabad, tehsil and district Sitapur. According to them, the land has been wrongly recorded as Nazul land in the state government’s records.They claimed that the property was purchased by their predecessor-in-interest in 1862 and was subsequently transferred through successive predecessors before coming into the hands of the present petitioners, who have been running an educational institution on the land for around 150 years.Opposing the plea, the state counsel submitted that the Sitapur district magistrate’s order dated June 24, 2026, clearly showed that authorities had not interfered with the portion of land where the school and church are functioning. Instead, only other portions, specifically described in the impugned order, had been reclaimed.The state further informed the court that demolition activities had already been carried out in certain areas and that possession of those portions had been taken by the Nagar Palika Parishad, Sitapur, on July 10, 2024.Taking note of the submissions, the high court directed that the matter be listed on July 20, 2026, among the top ten cases.As an interim measure, the bench observed that since the state government had already taken possession of a part of the disputed land, “they shall not change the nature of the possessed disputed property and the parties shall maintain status quo over the said land till the next date of listing”.