SC rejects plea to declare Mathura Shahi Idgah Mosque as Krishna Janmabhoomi

New Delhi: In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking recognition of Mathura’s Shahi Idgah mosque site as the Krishna Janmabhoomi.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said that it was not inclined to interfere with the order of the Allahabad High Court which had earlier dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the petitioner, advocate Mehek Maheshwari.

“We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned judgment and hence, the special leave petition is dismissed,” the bench ordered.

It clarified that the dismissal of the plea by the apex court will not prejudice the right of any party to challenge the constitutional validity of any enactment.

In his plea filed before the Allahabad High Court, Maheshwari prayed that Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Places of Worship Act, 1991 be declared as unconstitutional and contended that the bar placed by the 1991 Act will not be applicable in the Janmabhoomi case since the land had always been temple land and no question of changing its nature arose.

Maheshwari had contended that various historical records cite the fact that the disputed site, the Shahi Idgah mosque, is the actual birthplace of Lord Krishna and even the history of Mathura dates back to the Ramayana era, while Islam came just 1,500 years ago.

The high court dismissed the PIL at the threshold, without entering into the merits of the case in October last year.

A division bench of Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker and Justice Ashutosh Srivastava of the high court said: “Since the issues involved in the present writ (PIL) is already engaging attention of the court in appropriate proceedings (i.e., pending suits), we are not inclined to entertain the instant writ petition and the same is accordingly dismissed.”

IANS with edits