LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court, on Monday, adjourned the hearing on the issue of completing modalities and composition of the court commission to survey the Shahi Eidgah mosque premises adjoining Shree Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura.
The High Court posted the matter for the next hearing on January 11, 2024.
The bench comprising Justice Mayank Kumar Jain put off the hearing in the case on the plea of the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board and other Muslim litigants who informed the court that they had filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the order over the survey by court commissioner of the mosque premises.
The apex court had fixed January 9, 2024, for hearing the matter, claimed the Muslim side. To this, the Hindu plaintiffs argued that the Supreme Court had not stayed the High Court proceeding of the constituting the court commission.
On this, the High Court reserved its order. On December 14, Allahabad High Court had allowed the petition of the Hindu plaintiffs seeking the appointment of an advocate-commissioner to oversee the survey of the mosque premises, which the petitioners claimed, held signs and symbols suggesting that it was once a Hindu temple.
Justice Mayank Kumar Jain, while hearing a suit filed in the name of the deity - Bhagwan Shree Krishna Virajman at Katra Keshav Dev - and seven others, had allowed the application for the commission survey.
Notably, the application seeking the court-monitored survey of Shahi Idgah mosque premises was filed as part of an original suit pending before the High Court, in which the plaintiffs (Hindu side) have claimed that the Mathura Shahi Idgah Masjid was built over Krishna Janmabhoomi land and that the actual birthplace of Lord Krishna lied beneath the mosque.
The said application was filed through advocates Hari Shankar Jain, Vishnu Shankar Jain, Prabhash Pandey, and Devki Nandan.
Meanwhile, in all the 18 original suits pending in the High Court, the plaintiffs have mainly sought a declaration that the land under dispute -- the area where the Shahi Eidgah Mosque is situated – belonged to the deity Lord Shri Krishna Virajman.
A day later, on December 15, the Supreme Court refused to stay the Allahabad High Court's decision to allow the court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque premises on an oral plea by the Muslim side.
The court had asked them to challenge the order by way of an appeal while fixing the matter for the next hearing on January 9.
