A Gandhian institute in Varanasi that faces a demolition threat for allegedly encroaching on railway land on Friday said the Supreme Court had ordered authorities not to act on the matter till it had heard the organisation’s petition on July 10.

The Sarva Sewa Sangh’s counsel, Prashant Bhushan, stated this in a written communication to the Uttar Pradesh government and Northern Railway as the institute waited for the local MP — Prime Minister Narendra Modi — to grant it an audience during his two-day constituency visit from Friday.

“Upon being mentioned, the Chief Justice of India has asked us to inform you that the above-mentioned Special Leave Petition will be heard by the Supreme Court coming Monday, i.e. 10-07-2023 and that until that time the authorities may not proceed with the said eviction and demolition drive as per notice dated 27-06-2023,” Bhushan’s communication said.

The Sangh — headquartered in Wardha, Maharashtra — says it has documents to prove that Vinoba Bhave and other Gandhians had bought land from the railways to establish the Varanasi branch in 1960. It says a part of the land was given to Jayaprakash Narayan to open the Gandhi Vidya Sansthan, a Gandhian study centre.

Ram Dhiraj, head of the Sangh in Varanasi, said: “The state government has forged documents to dislodge us from here and hand over the land to the (central government’s) Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, which is run these days by RSS members.”

Police and Varanasi administration officials had barged into the Sangh’s Varanasi premises in May and locked some buildings of the Sansthan.