Mathura: The Allahabad High Court will hold a hearing on the case leading to the survey in the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi and Idgah case. The Supreme Court will issue its order on the appointment of the court commissioner of the Shahi Idgah Mosque and will also specify when the Department of Archeology will conduct its video survey.
Post the survey, a report on the remains and figures of Hindu culture will be presented in the court. The Supreme Court had declined to halt the Allahabad High Court's order permitting the survey of the Mathura Shahi Idgah complex near the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Temple.
Advocates from both the Hindu and Muslim communities will be present in the Allahabad High Court to conduct the survey and will present their arguments following which the court will issue its order.
What is the dispute about?
Emperor Aurangzeb ordered the construction of the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura, which is located next to the Krishna Janmasthal, considered to be the birthplace of Lord Krishna.
The Hindu parties to the lawsuit assert that a temple near the birthplace of Lord Krishna was demolished before the Mughal-era mosque from the 17th century was constructed. Before December 2022, a municipal court granted the demand. However, the Muslim side objected to the move, filing a case before the High Court.
Ranjana Agnihotri, a lawyer from Lucknow, together with six other petitioners filed a request in September 2020 for a survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque, which is situated near the "Krishna Janmabhoomi" and shares a compound with the Katra Keshav Dev Temple.
The plea asked for the dismantling of the 17th-century mosque, claiming that the original "kaaraagar," the site of Lord Krishna's alleged birth, "lies beneath the construction raised by Committee of Management Trust Masjid Idgah."
The same month, the plea was dismissed as inadmissible because the petitioners could not be the deity's "next of kin," were not from Mathura, and lacked locus.
The Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Mukti Nirman Trust filed a writ petition in July, which the Allahabad High Court dismissed. The petition asked the court to order the Mathura civil judge to rule on the trust's request for a scientific survey of the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah Mosque premises before ruling on the suit's objections.
The petition filed by the Hindu side says that “it is matter of fact and history that Aurangzeb ruled over the country… (and) had issued orders for demolition of large number of Hindu religious places and temples including the temple standing at the birth place of Lord Shree Krishna at Katra Keshav Dev, Mathura in the year 1669-70 (Sixteen Sixty Nine- Seventy) AD”. “The army of Aurangzeb partly succeeded to demolish Keshav Dev Temple and a construction was forcibly raised showing the might of power and said construction was named as Idgah Mosque,” it says.
The Muslim side petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn an Allahabad High Court ruling that ordered all cases about Krishna Janmabhoomi to be consolidated. Since 2020, at least twelve cases about the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi controversy have been filed in Mathura's courts.
Furthermore, the Muslim side contended that "the Shahi Idgah Mosque does not fall within the ambit of 13.37 acres land at Katra Keshav Dev." "Lord Krishna's birthplace is not beneath the mosque. The attorneys argued that the plaintiffs' allegation was speculative and unsupported by any documentation.
The Supreme Court declined to postpone the Allahabad High Court's decision for a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah and asked them to contest the verdict through an appeal.
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