The Supreme Court on Friday stated that it will hear on December 9 a plea by the mosque committee challenging the Allahabad High Court’s rejection of its petition against 18 cases filed by the Hindu side in the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute in Mathura.
The bench, consisting of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, scheduled a detailed hearing for 2 pm on December 9.
“This we will hear at length. We will take it up on December 9, at 2 pm… We have to decide what the legal position is,” said the CJI, adding that he felt an intra-court appeal might be possible against the August 1 order of the High Court.
On August 1, the Allahabad High Court had rejected the Committee of Management, Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah’s plea, which challenged the maintainability of the cases concerning the Mathura temple-mosque dispute.
The court also ruled that the “religious character” of the Shahi Idgah mosque needed to be determined.
The mosque committee contended that the Hindu litigants’ suits violated the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which prohibits altering the religious character of any religious place as it existed on August 15, 1947.
The Act allows only the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute to be exempted from its purview. The Hindu litigants seek the removal of the mosque, alleging it was built on the site of a temple demolished by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
The High Court, however, held that the term “religious character” was not defined in the 1991 Act and stated that a place cannot have a dual religious character—both a temple and a mosque—at the same time.
The court ruled that documentary and oral evidence from both parties would be required to determine the religious character of the disputed site as it stood on August 15, 1947.
The court also concluded that the cases were not barred by the Places of Worship Act, the Waqf Act, or other related laws. Hindu side counsel Vishnu Shankar Jain noted that with the dismissal of the plea, the High Court would proceed with hearing the temple-mosque dispute cases.
Jain added that the Hindu side would also seek the Supreme Court’s intervention to vacate a stay on a prior High Court order that allowed a survey of the mosque.
The dispute in Mathura mirrors the ongoing legal battle in Varanasi, where the Gyanvapi mosque and the Kashi Vishwanath temple are located next to each other.
