The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will conduct a detailed hearing on December 9 regarding the Mathura Shahi Idgah dispute, following the Allahabad High Court’s dismissal of a plea by the mosque committee. This plea contested the maintainability of 18 cases brought forward by Hindu litigants over the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah complex.
The bench, led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, has scheduled the hearing for 2 pm. Chief Justice Khanna expressed the need for a comprehensive review to clarify the legal position concerning the disputed site. “This we will hear at length. We will take it up on December 9, at 2 pm… We have to decide what is the legal position,” he stated.
On August 1, the Allahabad High Court had rejected the Committee of Management, Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah’s challenge to the maintainability of the cases, which hinge on the religious character of the Shahi Idgah that needs to be determined. The mosque committee argues that the Hindu litigants’ claims are in violation of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991, which maintains the religious nature of places of worship as they were on India’s Independence day, barring the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.
The Hindu litigants assert that the mosque, dating back to the era of Aurangzeb, was constructed after demolishing a pre-existing temple. The High Court, in its ruling, noted that the 1991 Act does not specify what constitutes “religious character” and stated that a site could not simultaneously have dual religious characters that are “adverse to each other.”
Justice Khanna indicated that an intra-court appeal might be applicable against the single judge’s order, which rejected the mosque committee’s plea, thus paving the way for a reassessment by the Supreme Court.
This hearing is particularly significant as it could influence ongoing and similar disputes across the country, notably the one in Varanasi involving the Gyanvapi mosque and the Kashi Vishwanath temple. Hindu side counsel Vishnu Shankar Jain mentioned that they would request the Supreme Court to lift its stay on a previous Allahabad High Court order that allowed a survey of the mosque to ascertain its origins.
