Updated: October 16, 2020 10:31:29 pm
Shahi Idgah Masjid in Mathura. (Photo: Creative Commons)
A Mathura court in Uttar Pradesh on Friday admitted an appeal against an order dismissing a lawsuit filed to remove a mosque located next to the Lord Krishna temple complex in the city, LiveLaw reported.
The case first came to light on September 26, when a group of devotees and the lesser deity moved a civil court, seeking the removal of the Idgah Mosque, which they say was built after part of a Hindu shrine was razed by order of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in the 17th century.
In the lawsuit brought before the civil judge, Mathura, the plaintiffs said that “every inch of land,” measuring 13.37 acres, “of Katra Keshav Dev (as the place is historically known) is sacred to Lord Shree’s devotees. Krishna and (the) Hindu Community ”.
The petitioners had requested the “removal of the encroachment and illegally erected superstructure” therein “by the Management Committee of the alleged Shahi Masjid Idgah Trust with the consent of the Sunni Central Board of Waqf.”
The plaintiff, described as Bhagwan SriKrishna Virjman in Katra Keshav Dev Khewat, Mauja Mathura Bazaar city, had transferred the civil suit through Ranjana Agnihotri and six other devotees of Lord Shri Krishna. Lawyers Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Jain had filed the petition.
However, on October 2, the civil court of Mathura had dismissed the claim. The order was approved by Additional District Judge Chhaaya Sharma. The court refused to admit the statement, citing the prohibition of admitting the case under the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991.
According to the petition, the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, who ruled India from July 31, 1658 to March 3, 1707 AD, “had issued orders for the demolition of a large number of Hindu religious sites and temples.”
“This included the temple that stands at the birthplace of Lord Shree Krishna at Katra Keshav Dev, Mathura in AD 1669-70 (Sixteen-sixty-nine-seventy). The Aurangzeb army managed in part to demolish the Keshav Dev temple and the building was forcibly erected to show the power of power and the building was named Idgah Mosque, ”the petition said.
The lawsuit gains prominence as the 1991 Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, enacted in September 1991 at the height of the Ayodhya temple movement when PV Narasimha Rao’s government was in power, had said that except for the dispute Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid, who was already in court, the religious character of a place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947 will remain the same.
However, the constitutional validity of the law is being challenged in a separate petition to the Supreme Court. The petitioners have alleged that the Law is unconstitutional, since it prohibits the right to request judicial review, which is a basic feature of the Constitution and outside the legislative competence of Parliament.
The Mathura petition states that the provisions of the 1991 Act “are not applicable in this case” but does not elaborate on them.
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