LUCKNOW: In a turn of events, the Allahabad High Court, on Friday, transferred all the suits related to the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah mosque dispute pending in the lower court of Mathura, to itself.
The High Court directed the Mathura lower court to transfer all cases along with the relevant records to High Court within the next two weeks.
The High Court, on May 3, had reserved the order over a petition seeking transfer of the case, in which the Hindus had claimed the right over the land on which the Shahi Masjid Idgah is built, to the High Court from Mathura lower court.
The single judge bench of Allahabad High Court, comprising Justice Arvind Kumar Mishra-I, allowed the transfer application moved by the Hindus including Bhagwan Shri Krishna Virajman at Katra Keshav Dev Khewat, Mathura, through lawyer Ranjana Agnihotri and seven others.
"The instant transfer application is allowed...Let the District Judge, Mathura prepare a list of all such cases of similar nature involving the subject matter and touching upon its periphery, expressly or by implication include particulars of such cases and these suits/cases along with the record, as above, shall be duly forwarded to this Court within two weeks and the same shall stand transferred to this court in the exercise of suo motu powers of this Court," the Court ordered.
The respondents in the case include the Management Committee of Shahi Masjid Idgah, Shri Krishna Janmbhoomi Trust, Katra Keshav Dev, and Shri Krishna Jamna Sthan Sewa Sansthan.
The transfer plea filed by advocates Vishnu Shankar Jain, Prabhash Pandey and Pradeep Kumar Sharma claimed that the issues involved in the suits pending before the Mathura court concerned crores of devotees of Lord Krishna and the matter was of national importance, hence it should be heard in the High Court.
The petitioners had also claimed in the application seeking transfer of the cases that the suits pending before the Mathura court could conveniently be heard in the High Court as there were substantial questions of law involved and also those related to the interpretation of the Constitution of India.
The petitioners had highlighted that following the initial suit being filed before the Court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) in Mathura, a number of suits were filed copying the initial plea’s contents verbatim. All those suits were of similar nature and the subject matter as well as relief sought in these cases was similar.
While hearing the petition, the High Court referred to Section 24(1)(b) of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) to note that as per the said provision, the suit pending in the subordinate court could be withdrawn and transferred to Court to which the application was made and that it was the High Court which was competent to hear and dispose of the same.
Advocates Punit Kumar Gupta, Birendra Prasad Maurya, Devid Kumar Singh, Kamlesh Narayan Pandey, Nasiruzzaman, Prateek Rai, Radheshyam Yadav and Varun Singh represented the respondents.
