Mathura court returns law suit seeking Hindu idols ‘buried’ in Agra Fort
The case could not get registered as, according to petitioner and lawyer Mahendra Pratap Singh, the court ‘returned’ the suit because of non-compliance with the legal provision requiring service of notice before making the Union of India as party to any case.
A new law suit was filed in the court of civil judge (senior division), Mathura, seeking the return of the idols which were supposedly removed by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb from the Sri Krishna Janambhoomi temple demolished in Mathura during 1670 and allegedly placed below the stairs of the Begum Sahiba Mosque near Deewan-e-Khas in the Agra Fort.
The case could not get registered as, according to petitioner and lawyer Mahendra Pratap Singh, the court ‘returned’ the suit because of non-compliance with the legal provision requiring service of notice before making the Union of India as party to any case.
“We had moved an application under Section 80 of the Civil Procedure Code seeking permission to file the case without serving notice to Union of India because the matter was of urgent nature and delay (caused by the time spent in serving the notice), would harm the very purpose of filing the case,” said Mahendra Pratap Singh, petitioner no. 2 in the case.
“However, the court was not convinced and ‘returned’ the file to us so that the case may be filed again only after notice is served upon Union of India before filing law suit against them as laid down in the in Civil Procedure Code. We will decide our next step after analyzing what happened today,” said Singh.
Interestingly, a similar application was moved by the same Mahendra Pratap Singh in another case number 950 of 2020 on April 1, 2021 in which he sought the return of the idols which were supposedly removed by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb from the Sri Krishna Janambhoomi temple in Mathura and allegedly placed below the stairs of the Mosque at Deewan-e-Khas in the Agra Fort. The said application is still to be disposed of and will be taken up on July 1 in the court of civil judge (senior division), Mathura.
“A temple of Keshav Dev (Krishna) used to exist in a vast area of 13.37 acre in Mathura. Mughal emperor Aurangzeb demolished the temple in 1670 and raised a structure at the same place, which is now known as the Shahi Eidgah mosque,” Singh claimed.
“Many historians and writers have mentioned that Aurangzeb got various idols, including that of Lord Krishna, buried under the stairs of the Begum Sahiba Ki Masjid near Deewan-e-Khas of Agra Fort to demoralize the Hindu idol worshippers,” he alleged.
“We have made the Union of India and the Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI) in Delhi, Agra and Mathura as party, asking the court to direct the ASI to get these idols excavated from the stairs of the Begum Sahiba Masjid in Agra Fort and bring back to Keshav Dev temple at Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi so that the religious feelings of Hindus which have been hurt by people treading over the buried idols may be assuaged,” he said.
“We also sought an injunction order from the court to stop movement of visitors on these stairs underneath which the idols of deities are buried,” added Singh, who is known for filing multiple applications in ongoing cases in Mathura courts over the issue of Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi and Shahi Eidgah Mosque.