Chief Justice of India deferred hearing of Mathura’s Krishna Janmabhoomi and Shahi Masjid case

The hearing in the Krishna Janmabhoomi and Shahi Masjid case in Mathura was postponed by a bench consisting of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar. The Supreme Court is considering a number of petitions over the matter.

The Shahi Masjid Idgah Committee of Management Trust has petitioned the Supreme Court in one of these cases, contesting the Allahabad High Court’s decision to dismiss the mosque committee’s appeals on the maintainability of many lawsuits filed by Hindu devotees.

In the appeal, the Committee of Management Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah contested a High Court ruling dated August 1 in which the court denied the mosque committee’s applications under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) to reject the plaints in 15 separate lawsuits brought by Hindu devotees.

Through RHA Sikander and attorney Mehmood Pracha, the management committee has filed the case and requested temporary relief to halt the HC ruling.

On the grounds that it is the location of Lord Shri Krishna’s birthplace, more than 15 lawsuits have been brought by various plaintiffs claiming conflicting claims to the Shahi Masjid Eidgah (Krishna Janmabhoomi).

According to Order VII Rule 11 of the CPC, the Petitioner, who has been named as a Defendant by the various Plaintiffs/Respondents in the subject (15) Suits, has submitted separate applications for the dismissal of each suit’s particular plaint. Among other things, the Limitation Act, Places of Worship Act, Specific Relief Act, Waqf Act, and Order XXIII Rule 3A of the CPC prohibited the plaints,” the plea said.

“After hearing all the parties in all the 15 Suits, the High Court has passed an inherently flawed Judgement by combining selective pleadings of different Suits filed by different Plaintiffs/Respondents herein (containing differing pleadings and claiming different reliefs), into a common hotchpotch, to make a new composite Suit from the pleadings of the 15 Suits and thereafter, reading them selectively to dismiss all the Applications under Order VII Rule 11 of the CPC filed in all the 15 Suits by a common Judgment,” the plea stated.

“The High Court has passed a common Judgment by a selective combined reading of the pleadings in 15 Suits and not taken into consideration the specific pleadings of each Plaint to decide whether that particular Plaint is barred by law on the basis of its pleadings,” the complaint submitted by the mosque committee stated.

The plea filed by the mosque committee contesting the maintainability of litigation brought by Hindu devotees was rejected by the Allahabad High Court on August 1.

Several legal forums are handling various issues related to the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah Masjid conflict. A previous appeal against the Allahabad High Court’s decision to transfer all of the cases pertaining to the Krishna Janambhoomi property dispute in Mathura from the District Court in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, to the Committee of Management Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah was filed before the highest court. Masjid Idgah contested the Allahabad High Court’s May 26 ruling, which moved all proceedings pertaining to the Krishna Janambhoomi dispute from the District Court Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, to the court itself.

A Lucknow resident named Ranjana Agnihotri has sued in Mathura court to claim 13.37 acres of property belonging to Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi.Agnihotri sought in her lawsuit that the Shahi Idgah mosque in Krishna Janmabhoomi be taken down.

A mosque that was allegedly constructed in 1669–1670 on the instructions of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb on the 13.37-acre grounds of Katra Keshav Dev temple, close to Lord Krishna’s birthplace, was to be removed, according to the claim filed in the Mathura court.