A Mathura court on January 25 heard the matter in the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah Masjid dispute, and Additional Civil Judge Senior Division III fixed February 10 as the date for the next hearing. On January 25, a request was put forward by the Krishna Janmabhoomi side for scrutiny or an inspection of the Shahi Idgah Masjid. Alternatively, the Idgah side prayed for recalling the order of Amin inspection and demanded the case’s dismissal.
Following the Mathura Court’s December 22 order, a new plea had been moved before the Mathura Court seeking the attendance of officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) during the time when Court Amin inspected the Eidgah mosque site. Civil Judge Sonika Verma had directed the Civil Court officers on December 22, 2022, to visit and survey the disputed premises and present a report with maps before the Court by January 20, 2023.
The plea had been filed by the National Treasurer of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, Dinesh Sharma. The National President of Hindu Sena filed the suit through Advocate Shailesh Dube, Vishnu Gupta, seeking possession of the Shahi Idgah premises and pulling down of the current structure sited there. In the suit, plaintiff Vishnu Gupta had challenged the ownership of 13.77-acre land on which the Idgah was established. The suit stated that the Idgah was erected by Aurangzeb on the 13.37 acres of Shri Krishna’s birthplace after razing the Shri Krishna temple. Bearing this in mind, the suit sought the annulment of the agreement between Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sangh, and Shahi Idgah, effected in the year 1968, terming it illegitimate.
Seeking an Archaeological Survey of India officials’ attendance during the inspection, the instant plea had been moved by Vishnu Gupta by stating that the said court had directed to get the status of the premises via ‘Amin Sahab’. However, for the installation of the stones in the Idgah, to put forward the accurate facts, and to draw an appropriate inference, it was essential that the officials of the ASI must be present during the inspection by ‘Amin Sahab’ and they should chalk down all the facts and give their opinions about the age of the stones. The plea had also alleged that in the Eidgah, the stones of the ancient temple, mythological engravings, and artworks had been installed, and the stones of all the artifacts of Shri Krishna had been changed, giving the impression as if the remnants of the ancient temple had been buried in Idgah.
Previously, the Allahabad High Court had stayed proceedings pending before the Mathura court on August 3, 2022, in a suit filed by the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust and other private parties. The order was passed while hearing a petition filed challenging the judgment passed by the District Judge, Mathura, in which the court had held that the suit to eliminate the Shahi Idgah Masjid, supposedly constructed on the land of Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi, was maintainable. The Mathura Court had allowed a revision plea by the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust and other private parties and overturned a civil court order dismissing their suit in September 2020.
“We filed a petition in court and the order was given (for a survey). That land is of Lord Krishna who was born in Mathura, it’s evident. Now a court commissioner has been appointed for a survey, everything’s under the purview of law,” Vishnu Gupta, petitioner in the matter, told ANI.
The Shahi Masjid Idgah, which was constructed on a portion of the 13.37 acres possessed by the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust, was the subject of a lawsuit brought by the petitioners on December 8, 2022, in the Court of Civil Judge Senior Division pursuant to the demolition of the Katra Keshav Dev temple by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
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