Lucknow, Dec 14
The Allahabad High Court on Thursday allowed an application, seeking orders for the appointment of a commission to inspect the Shahi Idgah mosque complex — believed to be built by the Hindu petitioners on the place where Lord Krishna was born.
Speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon, Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain said, “The court has allowed our demand that an advocate commissioner must be appointed. Who will be the advocate commissioner, what will the modalities be, and whether it will be a three-member committee? All these things will be decided on December 18.”
“We demanded that in the Shahi Idgah mosque, there are lots of signs and symbols, and to know the actual factual position, an actual advocate commissioner is required. The court has allowed our application,” he added.
What is the case?
In 2020, Lucknow-based advocate Ranjana Agnihotri, along with six others, filed a plea before the Civil Judge (Senior Division) seeking the removal of the Shahi Idgah mosque from the temple complex. The dispute involves ownership of 13.37 acres, which the petitioners claim belongs to the deity Lord Shri Krishna Virajman.
In May 2022, District and Sessions Judge Rajiv Bharti allowed this appeal after it was dismissed in September 2020 by Judge Chaya Sharma on grounds of maintainability, holding that Agnihotri and the other petitioners did not have locus, and could not be “next of kin” of the deity when a temple management authority already exists. Subsequently a revision petition was filed before the district judge.
Who are the petitioners?
Agnihotri — who, incidentally, wrote a book called Sri Ram Janmbhoomi Ayodhya Unpunished Conspiracy: Brutal Killing, Mischief and Interpolation in 2017 — claimed to be suing on behalf of Shri Krishna Virajman as “next of kin” to the deity. The petitioners argued that the original kaaraagar (prison) where Lord Krishna is believed to have been born “lies beneath the construction raised by Committee of Management Trust Masjid Idgah” and that the “true fact will come out before the Court after excavation”. (According to legend, Lord Krishna’s parents Devaki and Vasudev had been imprisoned by the evil king Kansa, after it was prophesied that Devaki’s child would be his nemesis.).
What is the previous litigation on the same case?
At least a dozen cases have been filed in courts in Mathura by different petitioners for the removal of the mosque from the 13.77-acre complex, which it shares with the Katra Keshav Dev Temple.
Other pleas include a video survey of the mosque (which would be on the lines of the survey allowed by the Varanasi court at the Gyanvapi mosque), and the right to offer prayers on the premises.
The Allahabad High Court dismissed a public interest litigation by advocate Mehek Maheshwari in October 2023, demanding that the mosque be acquired by the government. Initially, the PIL was dismissed as the lawyer did not turn up for the hearing, but a Bench comprising Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Prakash Padia revived it. Maheshwari on the dismissal in 2023 said, “The bench dismissed the PIL on the grounds that several other suits in the Krishna Janmabhoomi are pending in the court.”
In May 2022, petitioner Manish Yadav, National president of an outfit called the Narayani Sena, had sought appointment of an advocate commissioner to carry out inspection of the Shahi Idgah Masjid after filing an application in the High Court earlier for early disposal of petitions connected with the disputed Mathura site,
Who owns the land?
The area was regarded as nazul land — non-agricultural state land owned by the Marathas, and then the British. Raja Veer Singh Bundela of Orchha had also built a temple on the same premises in 1618 and the mosque was built by Aurangzeb in 1670 on the site of an earlier temple.
In 1815, Raja Patni Mal of Benaras bought the 13.77 acres in an auction from the East India Company which was sold by his descendants to Jugal Kishore Birla for Rs 13,400, and it was registered in the names of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Goswami Ganesh Dutt, and Bhiken Lalji Aattrey.
The Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust was set up by Birla, and it acquired the ownership rights over the Katra Keshav Dev temple. In 1951, the 13.77 acres were placed in the trust, with the condition that the “trust property will never be sold or pledged.”
In 1956, the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Sewa Sangh was set up to manage the affairs of the temple. In 1977, the word ‘Sangh’ in the registered society’s name was replaced with ‘Sansthan.’
In 1968, a “compromise agreement” was signed between the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan — the temple management authority, a registered society under law and the Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah. It was under this agreement that the temple authority had conceded the contentious portion of land to the Idgah on which the mosque stands.
What is the 1968 agreement and what does it entail?
According to court records, prior to 1968, several hutments stood on the 13.77-acre plot. Following the settlement, tenants of the Idgah were asked to vacate so a new temple could come up. Boundaries were redrawn so both places of worship could operate simultaneously. A wall separated them; it was agreed that the mosque would have no window, door, or open drain facing the temple.
The petitioners say the agreement was made fraudulently, and is invalid in law. In any case, the deity was not part of the proceedings, and His rights cannot be extinguished by the agreement.
