The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking recognition of Mathura’s Shahi Idgah mosque site as the Krishna Janmabhoomi. The bench, comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, declined to interfere with the Allahabad High Court’s order that had earlier dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Mehek Maheshwari.
The bench stated, “We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned judgment, and hence, the special leave petition is dismissed.” It clarified that the dismissal would not prejudice the right of any party to challenge the constitutional validity of any enactment.
In the petition filed before the Allahabad High Court, Maheshwari sought the declaration of Sections 2, 3, and 4 of the Places of Worship Act, 1991 as unconstitutional. He argued that the bar imposed by the 1991 Act would not be applicable in the Janmabhoomi case since the land had always been temple land, and no question of changing its nature arose.
Maheshwari contended that historical records indicated that the disputed site, the Shahi Idgah mosque, is the actual birthplace of Lord Krishna. The high court dismissed the PIL at the threshold without delving into the merits of the case in October last year.
A division bench of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Ashutosh Srivastava stated, “Since the issues involved in the present writ (PIL) are already engaging attention of the court in appropriate proceedings (i.e., pending suits), we are not inclined to entertain the instant writ petition, and the same is accordingly dismissed.”
The Supreme Court’s decision marks a continuation of the legal trajectory surrounding the dispute over the religious and historical significance of the Shahi Idgah site in Mathura.
