In a significant decision, the district court of Mathura on Thursday allowed a lawsuit seeking to remove the Shahi Idgah Masjid on the ground that it was built over Krishna Janmabhoomi land.
District Judge Rajeev Bharti has thus overturned a civil court order dismissing the suit. Thursday’s order came in a revision plea filed by Hindu deities Bhagwan Shrikrishna Virajman and Asthan Shri Krishna Janmbhoomi, through next of friends Ranjana Agnihotri and others, challenging the dismissal order.
The lower court which had earlier dismissed the plea is now bound to hear it.
The plea was originally filed on September 25, 2020, by Lucknow-resident Ranjana Agnihotri and six others. They had claimed in the plea that Shahi Idgah Masjid is constructed on a part of 13.37 acre land belonging to the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust. They had demanded the mosque be removed and the land returned to the trust.
However, the civil judge had rejected the suit on September 30, 2020, as non-admissible. The petitioners then moved the court of district judge, seeking a revision of the order.
In the wake of the admission of the lawsuit, the Uttar Pradesh Police has directed its units in eight districts to 'remain on high alert'. A matter for concern is the petitioners’ plea for restrictions on the presence of Muslims at the mosque.
There was a compromise between the Muslims and the temple trust in 1968 regarding the possession of the said land. As per it, the Muslims were given the management of the Shahi Idgah. In the suit allowed by the district court on Thursday, this deal has been termed illegal and petitioners have said that the temple trust has no right to enter into any such agreement.
In the petition, a demand has been also raised for excavation of the entire premises claiming that the site where Lord Krishna was born is situated right beneath the mosque.
“As worshippers of Lord Krishna, we have the right to file a suit demanding restoration of his property. The mosque was wrongly built on Krishna Janmabhoomi. There was a compromise several years ago on the sharing of property, but that compromise was illegal,” NDTV quoted the petitioner’s lawyer, Gopal Khandelwal, as saying.
According to the petitioner, the mosque was built at the Krishna Janmabhoomi (birthplace of Krishna) on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1669-70.
With the Supreme Court settling the protracted Ram Janmabhoomi case in November 2019, the clamour for reclaiming purported “Hindu sites” in Mathura and Kashi has grown louder.
