The Supreme Court has extended its stay on the Allahabad High Court’s order allowing a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah Mosque complex in Mathura.
Located next to the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple, a site of great religious significance to Hindus, the mosque complex has been at the center of a legal dispute.
A bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, along with Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan, decided to defer the hearing of the case to the week beginning April 1. The case involves a petition from the ‘Committee of Management of Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah,’ which is challenging the court-monitored survey.
During the proceedings, the Chief Justice highlighted that three significant issues are pending before the Supreme Court: an intra-court appeal concerning the consolidation of lawsuits filed by Hindu litigants, a challenge to the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, and the matter of the mosque’s survey itself. In the interim, the stay on the survey, first imposed by the Supreme Court on January 16, 2024, following the Allahabad High Court’s December 14, 2023 order, will remain in place.
The High Court’s controversial order had permitted a court-monitored survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque complex and appointed a court commissioner to oversee it. The decision has drawn significant attention, with the Hindu side arguing that the mosque is built on land that once hosted a temple. Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu litigants, stated that the mosque committee’s appeal against the High Court’s December 2023 order had become irrelevant due to subsequent rulings by the High Court.
The High Court had also dismissed the Muslim parties’ plea challenging the maintainability of 18 cases related to the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah dispute. In its ruling, the High Court determined that the religious character of the mosque needed to be examined, effectively allowing the Hindu litigants’ suits to proceed.
The High Court further rejected the Muslim parties’ argument that the lawsuits violated the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991, which prohibits changes to the religious character of any place of worship as it stood on August 15, 1947, with the sole exception of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.
In Mathura, the legal dispute involves a suit seeking the relocation of the Shahi Idgah mosque, claiming it was built on a part of the 13.37-acre land of the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust. The Hindu side had requested that the trial proceed in a similar manner to the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case.
While granting permission for the court-monitored survey, the High Court had emphasized that the mosque structure should not be harmed during the process, which could be overseen by a three-member commission of advocates.
Court’s decision to extend the stay continues to delay the survey, leaving the matter unresolved for now.
