After Babri, Court Admits Plea To Remove Shahi Idgah Masjid In Mathura

A Mathura court on Friday admitted a plea seeking to remove the 17th-century Shahi Idgah mosque situated adjacent to the Shri Krishna temple complex and reclaim ownership over the entire 13.37 acres of the alleged “Krishna Janmabhumi” land.

The court of district judge Sadhna Rani Thakur has accepted the appeal and will next hear the matter on November 18.

Earlier in October, a civil court in Mathura had dismissed a plea seeking order to remove the Shahi Idgah Mosque. The Court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) cited the bar under the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 to throw out the suit. As per Section 4 of the Act, the courts are barred from entertaining pleas seeking the conversion of the character of religious places as it stood on the date of Indian Independence.

The earlier petition, filed in the court of Senior Civil Judge Chhaya Sharma, had also demanded the annulment of a 1968 Mathura court ruling ratifying a land deal reached between the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan and Shahi Idgah Management Committee.

When the senior division civil judge dismissed their plea on September 30, they appealed in the district court on October 12 terming the order “erroneous and against facts”. After summoning the record of the lower court, the district court admitted the appeal on Friday.

The suit was filed last month on behalf of child deity Bhagwan Shrikrishna Virajman through the “next friend” Ranjana Agnihotri and seven others. The defendants in the case were the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, the Shahi Masjid Idgah Trust, the Shri Krishna Janambhoomi Trust and Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan.

In a verdict on November 9 last year, the Supreme Court had ruled that the disputed land in Ayodhya, where the Babri Masjid once stood, would be handed over to a government-run trust for the construction of a Ram temple. The court said that the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 by Hindu mobs, that subsequently resulted in the death of thousands was “an egregious violation of the rule of law”.