29 Jan 2024 9:16 AM GMT
The Supreme Court on Monday (January 29) adjourned until April a batch of pleas pertaining to the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Eidgah Mosque dispute but extended the interim stay granted on a high court order appointing a commission to inspect the premises of the mosque in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was hearing the special leave petitions filed by the mosque committee and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board challenging a May 2023 order of the Allahabad High Court transferring to itself a clutch of suits over the land dispute. Also listed before the bech was another SLP filed by the mosque committee challenging the order passed by the Allahabad High Court in December 2023 allowing the appointment of a court commissioner to inspect the Shahi Eidgah mosque.
Earlier this month, the top court stayed the implementation of the Allahabad High Court order appointing a commissioner.
The hearing of all the three petitions were adjourned by the bench on the joint request of the parties. The interim stay against the direction to appoint a commissioner was, however, extended till the nest date of hearing. Justice Khanna pronounced -
Background
The controversy is related to Mughal emperor Aurangazeb-era Shahi Eidgah mosque at Mathura, which is alleged to have been built after demolishing a temple at the birthplace of Lord Krishna.
In 1968, a 'compromise agreement' was brokered between the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan, which is the temple management authority, and the Trust Shahi Masjid Eidgah allowing both places of worship to operate simultaneously. However, the validity of this agreement has now been doubted by parties seeking various forms of relief in courts with respect to Krishna Janmabhoomi. The litigants' contention is that the compromise agreement was made fraudulently and is invalid in law. Claiming a right to worship at the disputed site, many of them have sought the Shahi Eidgah mosque's removal.
"...Looking to the fact that as many as 10 suits are stated to be pending before the civil court and also there 25 should be more suits that can be said to be pending and issue can be said to be seminal public importance affected the masses beyond tribe and beyond communities having not proceeded an inch further since their institution on merits for past two to three years, provides full justification for withdrawal of all the suits touching upon the issue involved in the suit from the civil court concerned to this Court under Section 24(1)(b) CPC."
This transfer order has been challenged in the Supreme Court by the mosque committee, and later by the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board.
In related news, the apex court in September refused to entertain a plea by the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Mukti Nirman Trust seeking a scientific survey of Shahi Eidgah Masjid premises, leaving all questions relating to the ongoing land dispute open to the Allahabad High Court to decide. Recently, the high court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the recognition of the disputed site as Krishna Janmabhoomi and the removal of the mosque after noting that several suits for declaration, injunction, and the right to worship at the site as well as for removal of the structure was already pending before it. A special leave petition challenging this order by the Allahabad High Court was dismissed by the Supreme Court earlier this month.
Case Details
Committee of Management Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah v. Bhagwan Shrikrishna Virajman & Ors. | Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 14275 of 2023