SC pauses Railway’s Mathura demolition drive for 10 days
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New Delhi: Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Indian Railway to pause the demolition drive being carried out to clear illegal constructions near the Krishna Janmabhoomi in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura.
"Let there be status quo as regards the subject premises for a period of 10 days. List after one week," a bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose, Sanjay Kumar, and SVN Bhatti said, issuing notice to the Centre and others in the matter.
The bench also directed the Indian Railway to file its reply within a period of one week.
The petitioner, Yakub Shah, in his plea filed before the Supreme Court, said that he had filed an application seeking a permanent injunction against demolition in a civil court of Mathura but the Railway administration commenced demolition in the meantime.
The lawyer appearing for the petitioner told the bench that 100 houses have been bulldozed.
"There are 70-80 houses left. The whole thing will become infructuous. They conducted the exercise on a day when Uttar Pradesh courts were closed," he said.
With inputs from agencies