NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday extended the stay on the Allahabad High Court’s order for a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque complex adjoining the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple at Mathura in Uttar Pradesh as it deferred hearing on petitions challenging the high court’s order.
“Interim orders wherever granted shall continue,” a Bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna said, posting a petition filed by the Committee of Management Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah, Mathura, for further hearing in April.
Directing the parties to complete the procedural formalities, the Bench said all petitions before it on the issue will be taken up together in April.
Another plea filed by the mosque committee challenging the May 26, 2023, order of the high court transferring to itself all matters related to the dispute pending before a Mathura court was also pending before the top court.
Noting that the Hindu side’s application for appointment of a court commissioner for a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque complex adjoining the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple was “vague”, the Supreme Court on January 16 stayed the December 14, 2023, Allahabad High Court order for the appointment of a court commissioner to oversee the survey of mosque premises which, the Hindu side claimed, had signs suggesting it was a temple in the past.
The stay order had come on a petition filed by the Committee of Management Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah at Mathura challenging the high court’s order allowing a court-monitored survey of the mosque.
While issuing notice to the Hindu side, the Bench had clarified that the proceedings before the high court, including with regard to maintainability of the suit under Order 7 Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC), will go on.
On behalf of the mosque management committee, advocate Tasneem Ahmadi had said the high court could not have passed such an order when an application seeking rejection of the suit for being barred by the Places of Worship Act, 1991, was pending. The 1991 Act put a bar on the change of character of religious places as on August 15, 1947.
Senior counsel Shyam Divan, who represented Bhagwan Shri Krishna Virajman and others, had opposed the stay order and urged the top court to allow the high court to work out the modalities of the commission survey.
However, the Bench had stayed the high court’s order, saying certain legal issues had arisen for consideration.
The Hindu side has filed the suit in the court of Civil Judge Senior Division (III), Mathura, seeking shifting of the Shahi Idgah mosque, alleging it was built on a part of the 13.37-acre plot of the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust. They demanded that the high court must conduct an original trial as was done in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi title dispute case.