Allahabad High Court has asked the Varanasi district administration to return to the Sarva Seva Sangh the property on which the Gandhi Vidya Sansthan stands if the documents submitted by the Sangh prove its ownership claim.

The Sangh, a Gandhian social service organisation, had moved court after the Uttar Pradesh regime on Monday allegedly took over the institute, which holds lessons on Gandhian ideas and is located on the Sangh’s premises in Varanasi.

“In case it is found that the petitioners (Sangh) are the true owners of the said property (Sansthan) then possession of the said property should revert back to the petitioner,” the single-judge bench of Justice Alok Mathur said in its order, reserved on May 16 and published on Friday.

Government officials and police had on Monday allegedly barged into the Sansthan and announced that it would be handed over to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, which functions under the Union culture ministry.

Ram Dhiraj, head of the Sarva Seva Sangh — which had given the land to the Sansthan on lease and now runs it — says the government is free to take over the Sansthan and shift it somewhere else.

However, he has said, he wouldn’t let the government interfere in the Sansthan as long as it is located on his organisation’s property.

The high court asked the district authorities to “go through the various documents including the lease deed as stated by the petitioners, which was executed between the petitioner and respondent (State of UP)” and come to a conclusion within two months.

Dhiraj and his team called off their dharna against the alleged takeover after the court order reached them.