India Tomorrow
New Delhi–The Supreme Court gave a relief to the mosque committee on Tuesday staying the implementation of the Allahabad High Court order of appointment of an Advocate Commissioner to inspect the Shahi Eidgah mosque at Mathura. This was reported by the legal portal livelaw.in.
This Shahi Eidgah at Mathura was built during the era of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Earlier, in September 2023, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a plea by the Shri Krishna Janmambhoomi Mukti Nirman Trust which sought a scientific survey of the Shahi Eidgah.
In the interim order of a bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta issued notice on a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the mosque committee against a December 14 order of the Allahabad High Court. In that order, the Allahabad High Court had allowed an application for the appointment of a court commissioner to inspect the mosque.
According to Livelaw.in, in its SLP, the mosque committee argued that the Allahabad High Court should have considered its plea for rejection of the plaint before deciding on any other miscellaneous applications in the suit.
Appearing for the mosque committee Advocate Tasneem Ahmadi pleaded that the High Court could not have passed such an order when an application seeking rejection of the suit as barred by the Places of Worship Act 1991 is pending. Recently, the top court had held that when the maintainability of a suit is questioned, the trial court must decide at least prima facie on the jurisdiction before granting interim relief.
The two judges bench accepted the legal contention on a prima facie level. It expressed reservations about the manner in which the commission application was filed.
Justice Khanna told the plaintiffs’ advocate Shaym Divan, “We have reservations about the application. Look at the prayer. It’s so vague. Read it. You cannot make an omnibus application like this. You have to be very clear what you want the local commissioner to do.”
Senior Advocate Shyam Divan objected to the stay of the Allahabd High Court order urging that the High Court could be allowed to work out the modalities of the commissioner survey.
The bench issued notice on the petition which is returnable on January 23, 2024. The bench said that the proceedings before the High Court can continue but the commission will not be executed in the meantime.
The Allahabad High Court had allowed a plea seeking the appointment of a court commissioner to inspect the Shahi Eidgah mosque, Mathura. A bench of Justice Mayank Kumar Jain had passed this order on 14th December. This plea was filed on behalf of the deity Bhagwan Shri Krishna Virajman and seven others.
The application claimed that the Hindu god Krishna’s birthplace lies beneath the mosque. A suit presently pending before the Allahabad High Court seeks a declaration that the the area where the Shahi Eidgah is situated belongs to Shri Krishan Virajman.
The mosque committee has pleaded that the plaintiffs’ claims failed to provide substantial evidence for the assertion that the original birthplace of Sri Krishna was beneath the Shahi Eidgah. The mosque committee has termed the plaintiffs’ application as a blatant lie to mislead the court to believe such claims.
It may be recalled here that a compromise agreement was reached by the Shri Krishna Janmsthan Seva Sansthan (temple management committee) and the Shahi Eidgah mosque trust in 1968. This agreement allowed both placed of worship to operate side by side. But this agreement’s is being challenged in the court by the temple side.
