In a big setback for the Muslim side, the Allahabad High Court on Thursday ruled that the 18 lawsuits submitted by the Hindus in the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah Masjid dispute were maintainable.
The suits aim to have the mosque removed from the 13.37-acre property that it shares with the Katra Keshav Dev temple.
The Muslim side argued that the Places of Worship Act, the Limitation Act, and the Specific Relief Act prohibited the lawsuits, contesting the maintainability of the claims brought by the Hindu parties.
The court pronounced that neither the Limitation Act nor the Places of Worship Act, among other laws, forbade lawsuits brought by the Hindu parties.
The court’s observation that each of the eighteen suits is maintainable opens the door for them to be considered based on their merits. The verdict was given by a single judge bench of Justice Mayank Kumar Jain on the maintainability of 18 civil suits pending in the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah case on Thursday.
Hindu Sena, a party in the case, welcomed the decision, saying “Today, the Allahabad High Court rejected the objections of the Muslim side in the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi case. Now the hearing of the Janmabhoomi case will continue in the Allahabad High Court. This is the victory of all Sanatanis and the victory of all Shri Krishna devotees living in the world today. Hindu Sena will file a caveat in the Supreme Court,” expressed Vishnu Gupta, the outfit’s national president.
Many lawsuits have been filed demanding the “removal” of the Shahi Idgah mosque, which is next to the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple. The petitioners contend that the mosque, which dates back to the Mughal emperor Aurangazeb era, was constructed following the destruction of a Hindu temple. The petitioners have also challenged the 1968 agreement between the Shahi Idgah Mosque Committee and the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust allowing the Mosque to continue to exist and use the land on which it was situated.
The management committee of the mosque opposed these suits in its petition. The proceedings were deemed unenforceable under the Places of Worship Act, 1991, according to the Muslim side, which included the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the mosque management committee.
The Muslim side alleged that the cases explicitly acknowledge that the mosque in question dates from 1669 to 1670.
The Muslim side’s representative, Taslima Aziz Ahmadi, had argued in court that the Waqf board’s provisions would be applicable, and that the Waqf tribunal was the appropriate forum to hear the case. The Hindu plaintiff, on the other side, asserted that there is no land registered in the government’s record under the name Shah Idgah, and this is an illegal occupancy. Additionally, they submitted that the Waqf Board had to reveal the donor of the contested property if it was alleged to be Waqf.
A recurrent petition in the Hindu side’s litigation calls for the “removal” of the Shahi Idgah mosque from the 13.37-acre property in Mathura that it shares with the Katra Keshav Dev temple, along with taking possession of the Shahi Idgah grounds.
