Hours after Babri Verdict, Mathura Court Dismisses Suit Seeking Removal of Mosque from Krishna 'Janmabhoomi'

A civil court in Mathura on Wednesday dismissed a suit filed to remove the Idgah Mosque alleging it was built over Krishna Janmabhoomi.

Last week, a group of people had moved the Mathura court over the 17th century Shahi Idgah mosque they claim was built at the birthplace of Krishna, within the 13 acre premises of the Katra Keshav Dev temple.

The dismissal came hours after a special CBI court in Lucknow acquitted all 32 accused, including BJP veterans LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case, 28 years after the incident pushed India into a cycle of communal riots and politics.

According to Live Law, the court cited the prohibition under the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, to admit the suit.

The petition, which was filed in the court of Senior Civil Judge Chhaya Sharma, had also demanded the annulment of a 1968 Mathura court ruling ratifying a land deal reached between the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan and Shahi Idgah Management Committee.

The suit was filed last week on behalf of child deity Bhagwan Shrikrishna Virajman through the “next friend” Ranjana Agnihotri and seven others. Next friend is a legal term for a person who represents someone directly unable to maintain a suit. The defendants in the case were the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, the Shahi Masjid Idgah Trust, the Shri Krishna Janambhoomi Trust and Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan, Jain said.

However, another body of priests had condemned the filing of the petition for the removal of the Shahi Idgah mosque. The Akhil Bharatiya Tirth Purohit Mahasabha president Mahesh Pathak said “some outsiders” were trying to disturb the peace in Mathura by raising a frivolous temple-mosque issue.

There is no temple-mosque dispute in Mathura at Srikrishna Janmasthan after a compromise between both the parties in the 20th century, he said. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 froze the status of religious places as it existed at the time of Independence. The Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid structure was exempted from the law’s purview.