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Shahi Eidgah management to move HC on Mathura petition’s admission
The district court’s decision on Thursday overturned a verdict by a Mathura civil court, which dismissed the petition in 2020 and said it violated the provisions of the 1991 Places of Worship Act
The management of the Shahi Eidgah Masjid in Mathura said on Friday it will approach the Allahabad high court against a district court decision that held a petition calling for the removal of the mosque and handing over of the entire premises to the Katra Keshav Dev Temple was maintainable and could be heard in a lower court.
The district court’s decision on Thursday overturned a verdict by a Mathura civil court, which dismissed the petition in 2020 and said it violated the provisions of the 1991 Places of Worship Act, which locked the character of places of worship as they existed on the day of India’s Independence, with the exception of the Ayodhya dispute.
“We have received the copy of the order dated May 19 and the same is being examined. The observations made by the court while allowing the revision are being studied in the light of legal provisions,” said Tanveer Ahmed, secretary and counsel of the managing committee of Shahi Eidgah mosque, which abuts the Sri Krishna Temple.
“Findings and observations made by the court of district judge while allowing the revision appear not to be legally tenable and as such the order passed will be challenged in Allahabad high court after proper discussion amongst stakeholders,” added Ahmed.
The development comes at a time when a similar legal fight is roiling Varanasi in the Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Masjid case. In both cases, Hindu groups argue that temples were demolished by Islamic rulers to build mosques, and therefore, the land should be returned to Hindus. Muslim groups reject the contention.
The plea was originally filed in the court of Mathura civil judge (senior division) on September 25, 2020 by Lucknow-based lawyer, Ranjana Agnihotri, and six others as the “next friend” of Bhagwan Sri Krishna Virajman, the presiding deity at the Mathura temple. Next friend is a legal representative of someone incapable of maintaining a suit directly.
The suit claimed that Shahi Eidgah Masjid was constructed on a part of 13.37-acre land belonging to the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust. They demanded the mosque, which abuts the temple, be removed and the land returned to the trust.
However, the civil judge (senior division) rejected the suit on September 30, 2020 as non-admissible. The petitioners then moved the district court, seeking a revision of the order.
After hearing the arguments, district and sessions judge Rajeev Bharti allowed the revision on Thursday, meaning the original suit will be heard by a lower court.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled on May 26 in the court of civil judge (senior division) in Mathura.
Hari Shankar Jain, the counsel for Hindu petitioners, said Thursday’s order will help “in bringing the truth of Mathura out in the open”.
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“The district judge’s court was very correct in holding that provisions of Places of Worship Act 1991 are not applicable in the case because the compromise entered in 1968 is being challenged by petitioners and took place after 1947,” said Jain.
The religious dispute simmered in the first half of the 20th century but a 1968 agreement calmed tempers. On October 12, 1968, an agreement was signed between the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan and the Shahi Masjid Idgah Trust, which divided the land between the two parties and relinquished any claims of the Hindu parties to the land of the mosque.
But Agnihotri’s petition challenged the settlement and alleged that the pact had no legal validity because the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust, which the petitioners claimed had the ownership and title of the land, was not party to the settlement.
“The Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan is working against the interest of the deity and devotees and fraudulently entered into a compromise with the Committee of Management of Trust Masjid Idgah (Trust) in 1968 conceding a considerable portion of property belonging to the deity and the trust,” the suit alleged.
The management committee of Shahi Eidgah mosque objected to the petition, arguing that as the compromise agreement was finalised in 1968 and the final judgement and decree the case was passed in 1974, Agnihotri’s petition was time barred.
The new petition ratcheted up communal tensions. Since September 2020, nine more petitions have been filed.
