Krishna Janmabhoomi Case: Court Rules in Favour of Hindus, Allahabad High Court Rejects Muslim Side's Plea

Krishna Janmabhoomi Case: The Allahabad High Court dismissed, on Thursday, a petition challenging the maintainability of 18 lawsuits by Hindu parties for removing a mosque from the 13.37-acre complex shared with the Katra Keshav Dev temple. The order was delivered by Justice Mayank Kumar Jain.

Court Clears Path for 18 Lawsuits

The court decision now paves the way for these suits to be decided on their merits. That is, the bench held that the suits moved by Hindu worshippers and the deity cannot, in these circumstances, be held barred under the Limitation Act, the Places of Worship Act, and the Specific Relief Act, argued the Committee of Management Trust Shahi Masjid Idgah, Mathura.

The Muslim side had contended that the suits were inadmissible because of the Places of Worship Act, 1991, forbidding any conversion in status of places of worship as they stood on August 15, 1947. Limitation Act, 1963, and Specific Relief Act, 1963, that the suits were barred by limitation and not fit cases for adjudication, were also cited by them. The court has dismissed such contentions and given the green signal to the continuation of the suits.

Hindu Parties' Lawyer Responds to Allahabad High Court's Verdict

The lawyer of Hindu parties, Vishnu Shankar Jain, said on the other side, "Today, the application under Order 7 Rule 11 of Shahi Eidgah Masjid has been rejected by the Allahabad High Court, and it has held that all these 18 suits are not barred by Places of Worship Act.". The Trials would go on, and our effort to intervene on the question of maintainability has been upheld. We will a caveat before the Supreme Court and be ready if Shahi Eidgah Masjid goes to it."

Legal and Religious Sensitivities

It is now claimed by Hindu petitioners that there is no mention of Shah Idgah mosque in any government record and hence it may be an illegal occupation. They also sought to know that if the property was a Waqf, then the Waqf Board should reveal who donated the land in question.

The next hearing of the petitions is on August 12, and once again, the court will take up the complicated issues over the disputed site. The judgment reaffirmed that legal and religious sensitivities over the mosque-temple complex were far from buried, and the judicial process was the way to sort out such high-profile disputes.